Beijing Rewarding Reports on Polluters

Beijing Rewarding Reports on Polluters





    
2008 Olympics:  
January 2007  - With 570 days to go 
before the 2008 Summer Olympic Games open here, city residents 
are being encouraged to help achieve the Olympic Committee's 
green goals and being paid for their efforts. 
Beijing citizens are reporting to authorities environmental 
offenses such as polluting factories, dusty construction sites 
and vehicles emitting black smoke. 
The city received 2,302 reports last year. Residents must 
deliver proof of their allegations in the form of photos or 
video footage as evidence along with their reports. 
A smoggy day in Beijing (Photo by Edwin P. Ewing, Jr. courtesy 
CDC) 
"A total of 58,900 yuan (US$7,550) was awarded to the 
informants," in 2006, the Beijing Municipal Environmental 
Protection Bureau was quoted as saying in the "Beijing Daily" 
newspaper. 
Offenders responsible for 2,200 of the complaints have been 
punished and the other cases will be settled by the end of the 
month, according to the bureau. 
Municipal environmental authorities initiated the program in 
2004 and the program will continue this year. 
The bureau says the city's air quality is improving. On 
December 24, 2006, the bureau said Beijing met its annual 
target of 65 percent clean air days with 238 days of level two 
air quality or better since January 1, 2006. 
The United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, and the 
International Olympic Committee, IOC, Thursday reaffirmed the 
environment as a major priority for the 2008 Olympic Games. 
An artist's rendition of the new 91,000 seat National Stadium 
being built for the Beijing Summer Olympics, August 8-24, 
2008. (Image courtesy BOCOG)
Meeting at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, IOC President 
Jacques Rogge and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner 
discussed support for the green goals of the Beijing 2008 
Olympic Organizing Committee. 
Rogge welcomed UNEP’s offer to conduct an environmental audit 
of the Beijing Olympics. 
Rogge and Steiner also agreed that the IOC will liaise with 
UNEP and with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic 
Games on a coordinated campaign to promote the environmental 
aspects of the Olympics. 
UNEP has worked with the IOC since 1994 in the belief that 
sport and mass spectator events can act as an important 
vehicle for galvanizing global interest and action for 
sustainable development. 
The environment is the third dimension of the Olympic 
Movement. It has become one of the main criteria for the 
evaluation and selection of cities to host the Olympic Games 
and is also a major priority for the preparation and staging 
of the Games. 
In November 2005, UNEP and the Beijing Organizing Committee 
signed an agreement aimed at making the summer Olympics of 
2008 environmentally friendly. 
In 2005, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau 
set up a sub-station in the Olympic Green to monitor air 
quality during venue construction. (Photo courtesy BOCOG) 
The agreement rests on Beijing's environmental ambitions in 
areas ranging from air, water and noise pollution up to 
transport, landscaping, and the disposal of solid waste. 
A key part of the plan and one in which UNEP will be actively 
involved is in the area of public awareness campaigns. 
Eric Falt, director of the UNEP Division of Communications and 
Public Information which will be spearheading the UN side of 
the Beijing agreement, said at the time, "Sport has the power 
to bridge the divide between communities and countries and in 
doing so help in our common quest for a more stable and 
peaceful world." 
"Part of that stability rests on a healthy and durable 
environment," Falt said. "So the commitments made by the 
organizing committee for the 2008 summer games have resonance 
both within and beyond the sporting world."