Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Shenzhen Shuts Down 156 Companies for its Green Universiade


Shenzhen City authorities, the host city of the 11-day 2011 Summer Universiade in eastern China's Guangdong Province, announced the shutdown of 156 enterprises after kicking off the university games on August 12.

City authorities forcibly closed 156 companies which failed the environmental assessment, as part of its environmental goals, according to a statement by the Habitat Environment Committee (HEC) of Shenzhen City.

The local authorities have launched an overall environmental campaign as well as ten other designated city-wide actions since 2007, including a "Green Commuting" campaign to reduce single-passenger commutes and increase investment in new-energy public vehicles.

Lin Hanzhang, deputy chief of the HEC, said local authorities warned heavy polluting factories of the new environmental requirements since March.

New regulations directed at six local power plants and about 1,500 heavy industry firms in Shenzhen led to an estimated decline of nitrogen oxide's annual emissions by 8,000 tons, sulfur dioxide's by 40,000 tons and volatile organic pollutants by over 20,000 tons, the committee said.

A "Green Commuting" campaign was launched, calling on local citizens and enterprises to reduce vehicle usage during the Shenzhen games. In total, the owners of about 40,000 cars, among which 92 percent were private registrations, agreed to give up driving during the event, said Huang Guoqiang, a spokesman for the games.

A total of 2,011 new-energy vehicles of various kinds have been put on the road to serve the Universiade, accounting for 52.8 percent of the vehicles scheduled for the sports event. Among these vehicles is the launch of 1,649 new-energy buses, making the city's new-energy bus fleet the largest in the world.

The deputy director from the environmental monitoring center of the committee, He Long told Caixin that the air quality of Shenzhen has reached its cleanest levels in the past ten years.
More than 12,000 participants from 152 delegations registered for the Shenzhen Universiade, the biggest international event ever held in Shenzhen, according to the games' official website.

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