China will adopt stricter auto emission standards equivalent to Euro II from Thursday in order to force polluters off the road, said the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) in Beijing Thursday.  

The new standards require a 30.4 percent cut of CO, a 55.8 cut of HC and NO, compared to the Euro I standards currently adopted in China, said SEPA vice-director Wang Jirong at a press conference.

Wang said new motor vehicles failing to meet Euro II will not be registered by traffic enforcement departments. Manufacturing, sales and export of Euro I vehicles will be forbidden within one year.

Adopting Euro I standards in 2000, Chinese manufacturers abandoned models without exhaust cleaning equipment and jumped to Euro I models, updating technologies for 15 years.

The government made the Euro II standards public in 2001 and promised a 30 percent cut of excise to qualified models. So far, 8,953 models have met the standards. Shanghai and Beijing adopted them in 2003, earlier than the rest of the country.

"Euro II marks a new epic of China's efforts to reduce auto emission, but it is never the end of the road," Wang said, adding that SEPA has made new standards equivalent to Euro III and will adopt them nationwide in 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2004)