Winning the gold with green: According to the U.N.'s Environmental Programme, China topped its green goals with the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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UNITED NATIONS — Beijing's $17 billion effort to support environmental enhancements and green projects around the 2008 Olympic Games met or exceeded almost all of its goals and made an impression on city officials and residents that is likely to last for years, the United Nations said in an assessment released today.

The U.N. review of China's efforts — issued at the 25th annual governing council of the U.N. Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya — concludes that Beijing succeeded in cleaning its notorious air pollution far beyond what most observers expected. The games also served as an impetus for permanent improvements to the city's transportation infrastructure and vehicle emission standards, possibly influencing other metropolitan areas in China to follow Beijing's lead.

"Considerable effort has gone into fulfilling the letter and spirit of the promise by the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BOCOG) to deliver a 'Green Olympics,'" UNEP said.

The study suggests that the biggest gains were made in air quality. City officials achieved an almost complete phaseout of ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbons, gases also known to contribute to the global greenhouse effect. The phaseout was initially scheduled to be complete by 2030, but UNEP says Beijing already met the goal last year.

Efforts to enhance air quality also pushed the city to adopt strict European-type vehicle fuel quality and emission standards, making the city's vehicle emissions regulations some of the most stringent in the world. Rules put in place during the games to restrict traffic, along with tighter emissions standards, helped Beijing cut carbon monoxide pollution by 47 percent and particulate matter levels by 20 percent.

Emissions of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, the main sources of acid rain pollution, also fell by 38 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

As a result of Beijing's ambitious and aggressive attack on air pollution, the number of "blue sky days" with the lightest amounts of air pollution rose to 274 last year, up from about 180 in 2000. Although the efforts were initially expected to only last during the run-up to and staging of the Olympic Games, UNEP officials say the big gains made have likely led to permanent awareness of and demands for better air quality among Beijing residents and municipal authorities. Many restrictions on heavily polluting truck traffic, for instance, were extended months after the games closed, the report notes.

But Beijing still has a long way to go toward cleaning up its air, the report warns. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing authorities is how to maintain the gains they have made on air quality improvement despite the estimated 1,000 new vehicles registered in the city each day.

The city should continue to spend on rail transport, even though the number of railway tracks already doubled in advance of the games, U.N. officials say. The report also recommends tax incentives to encourage more residents to purchase cleaner vehicles and possibly even implementing a Stockholm-like congestion pricing system for the city's urban core.