China Cleaning up Beijing's Act for Olympics

The Chinese government have announced funding for a large-scale wind farm on the outskirts of Beijing in an effort to cut pollution in time for the 2008 Olympics. The 580 million Yuan (£50million) project, said to be the tenth largest in the world and Beijing's first, will involve the construction of 33 wind turbines with an annual generating capacity of 100 million kWh. Although slightly more costly (0.3 Yuan) per kWh generated, the wind installation will save 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, and Chinese officials have announced that 20 percent of Olympic venues are powered by wind-generated electricity. However, despite these measures, some are still sceptical that Beijing can clean up its air in time for next year's games. As recently as 2004 figures showed that the city only achieved clean targets on about 280 days of the year, and since then traffic has been rising by 15% per year. So don't hold your breath. Then again, perhaps do hold your breath...