China will remove 6m cars to reduce pollution

After not being able to meet official pollution-reduction goals for the 2011-2013 period, China is now forced to take more drastic measures that the country has, so far, been reluctant to enforce.

The plan is to remove around 6 million cars from the road, particularly those registered before 2005 and which fail to meet cleaner emissions standards.

In addition, filling stations in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai will have to make supplies only of the cleanest grades of gasoline and diesel.

According to a cabinet statement issued yesterday, the environmental situation in China is 'extremely grim'. All of the country's major cities are covered in smog.

Although China has some of the world's strictest emissions standards, official have, until now, refrained as much as possible from applying them as many businesses could be hurt, especially the smaller ones.

Starting with 2008, China has had the world's largest automotive industry, exceeding that of the US or Europe, with almost all top car-makers producing vehicles in the country.

Out of China's 240 million vehicles that are currently on the road, half of them are passenger cars.

Exactly how the older cars will be yanked from the roads remains unknown.