Press Contact: Sophie Cardona: (212) 361-2400, ext. 244 , or email cardona@informinc.org

CHINA'S TRANSPORTATION GROWTH THREATENS HEALTH, POLITICAL STABILITY AND ENVIRONMENT: Switch to Clean Fuels Needed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 17, 1998

New York, NY -- The explosive vehicle growth underway in China will dramatically increase health threats to Chinese citizens, as well as the risks of ever-fiercer competition for oil and of global climate change, according to a report released today by the national environmental research organization, INFORM.

"The U.S. must help support and finance China's development of a transportation system based on cleaner alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies," according to INFORM President, Joanna Underwood.

The report, China at the Crossroads: Energy, Transportation and the 21st Century, written by INFORM's Senior Energy Consultant, James S. Cannon, describes the implications of the vast increase in the number of vehicles on the road in China. The report reveals:

• The number of vehicles in China has tripled since 1986 to 11 million.
• China's energy use for transportation (mostly oil) is up 700% since 1980, and has made it a net oil importer since 1993.
• The growing pollution from transportation, in addition to the use of coal, is compounding the already severe rate of respiratory disease among China's 1.2 billion population. Respiratory disease accounts for one in four deaths in China. "Were China to have the same number of vehicles per person as the U.S.," stated Jim Cannon, "there would be more than 900 million vehicles in China, consuming 18% more oil than the total world oil production today."

With vehicle use just beginning to soar, INFORM's report finds China at a moment of great opportunity. "While China's choice of vehicle transportation systems is its own to make, it can commit itself to fuels that are much cleaner than oil, such as natural gas," added Ms. Underwood. "Natural gas is abundant in several Chinese provinces, in contrast to oil, which is a rapidly dwindling global resource." "China can also set its sights on electric motors, efficient electric hybrid vehicles and ultimately hydrogen fuel cell vehicles - the true 'zero pollution' vehicles."

INFORM's report discusses promising alternative fuel ventures underway in China: bus and taxi projects using natural gas; a new program to widely market electric bicycles; a state sponsored $12 million program to put 3,000 - 5,000 electric vehicles on the road by the year 2000; and a variety of promising initiatives to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology.

INFORM's President Underwood emphasized that "the U.S. has a great economic opportunity to support China's progress, but we must provide a stronger example of leadership in our domestic programs. As the number one contributor of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas believed to cause global climate change, and as a country whose per capita generation of these gases is nine times that of China, the U.S. must take bolder steps to switch to sustainable transportation fuels. Businesses, financiers and investors, as well as environmental leaders in this country, can do much more to promote clean fuels and advanced vehicle technologies. These technologies are essential to protect our common global future."

INFORM is a national nonprofit organization that identifies practical ways of living and doing business that are environmentally sustainable. For more than a decade, INFORM's reports on alternative transportation fuels and advanced vehicle technologies have been respected resources worldwide.