Beijing removed 340,000 aging high-emission vehicles from roads by the end of October 2016, sources with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said Wednesday.
The move will help annually reduce 40,000 tonnes of pollutant emissions from the atmosphere, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbon and particulate, according to the bureau.
Beijing has about 5.65 million vehicles, with total pollutant emissions of about 500,000 tonnes per year, said Li Kunsheng, director of the vehicle management department with the bureau.
Vehicles contribute to over 30 percent of the city's PM 2.5 pollution each year, Li said.
Beijing has come up with a scheme to encourage elimination of old vehicles. According to the scheme, an owner of a ten-year-old car who discards it can get a government subsidy of 8,000 yuan (1183 U.S. dollars), while an owner of a ten-year-old bus can get 19,500 yuan.
