In-Use Vehicle Emissions in China: Beijing Study. Discussion Paper 2009-05

摘要

China's economic boom in the last three decades has spurred increasing demand for transportation services and personal mobility. Consequently, vehicle population has grown rapidly since the early 1990s, especially in megacities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Tianjin. As a result, mobile sources have become a more and more conspicuous contributor to urban air pollution in Chinese cities. In spring 2005, the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group (ETIP) at Harvard Kennedy School initiated a multiyear research effort to investigate in-use vehicle emissions in selected Chinese cities, joined by the China Automotive Research and Technology Center (CATARC), Tsinghua University, and the International Sustainable Systems Research Center (affiliated with University of California, Riverside). Tianjin was our first focus city, and the study there took us about two years to complete. Built upon the experience and partnership generated through the Tianjin study, the research team carried out the Beijing study from fall 2007-fall 2008. Beijing was chosen to be our second focus city for several reasons: it has the largest local fleet and the highest vehicle popularity among all Chinese cities, and it has suffered from severe air pollution partially due to the ever-growing population of on-road vehicles.