Senior scientific and engineering staff from the Beijing Environment Monitoring Centre visited London on 26th March. The visit, hosted by King’s, Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants and the Greater London Authority involved a series of presentations and a tour of the College’s air pollution supersite on Marylebone Road.

Clear common issues that emerged included the spatial scales at which actions need to be taken to manage city-wide air pollution, with both London and Beijing experiencing problems from pollution sources inside the city and in the surrounding region. The team from London were impressed with the progress that Beijing has made in decreasing primary pollutants from sources within the city, through policies including a Low Emissions Zone.

While in Beijing the progressive tightening of tailpipe emissions limits (directly analogous to the Euro Standards) has yielded measureable decreases in transport derived air pollution, these benefits have not been fully realised in London. This difference is thought to be due to the relatively low proportion of diesel vehicles in Beijing, compared to London.

Item date 16/04/2013