Photographs of smog enveloping Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium became one of the defining images of the first decade of this century. China’s annual air pollution deaths reached 2.6 million people a year in 2005. At the time, Beijing was crowned smog capital of the world and concerns for the health of athletes overshadowed preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games.
But rapid improvements followed, with clean-up technologies fitted to coal-burning power stations and industrial plants, followed by their conversion to fossil gas. New vehicles were fitted with tighter emissions controls and fuels were improved.
