Ever since the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Chinese city of Beijing has been on something of a green health-kick. Having dramatically reduced air pollution in time for the games and even restricted the days on which vehicles could be driven, residents had gone as far as to propose a restriction on the purchase of private cars. However, this plan has been deemed irresponsible by the Government.

Some residents had wanted to keep an alternating car ban that was originally imposed during the Olympics and Paralympics and took nearly two million cars off the roads for two months. It is estimated that around 120,000 tons of pollutants were eliminated during the period.

However, the Government introduced a new traffic restriction on October 11 under which 70 per cent of Government vehicles as well as corporate and private cars take turns staying off the roads one day during the five day week. This takes around 800,000 cars off the road every day.

Due to the impact of the global financial crisis, the Chinese government has stated it would be inappropriate to restrict car purchases or license plate issuing to control the number of vehicles. Efforts are still needed to maintain long-term development of the country’s auto industry.

However, its green plans have not been abandoned altogether. Instead it will rely on boosting the construction of a mass transit system and other forms of public transport. It plans to spend $13.2billion on the construction of more subway lines.

China has also been looking into a fuel tax reform to replace current road tolls. A fuel tax was first proposed in 1994 but has been delayed due to concerns it would impose too great a burden on those who consumed more oil.