On the 29th, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council presided over the State Council executive meeting and agreed to issue the newly revised "Ambient Air Quality Standards" to deploy and strengthen the key work of comprehensive prevention and control of atmospheric pollution. It proposed to “prominently focus on the prevention and control of motor vehicle pollution, improve vehicle fuel quality and motor vehicle emission standards. By 2015, basically eliminate the 'yellow label car' that was registered before 2005.”

The upgrading of oil products significantly lags behind China's fourth-class emission standard for light-duty gasoline vehicles in China. It has been implemented since July 1st last year. However, the implementation time of gasoline standards in most cities will not be until 2014. At present, only Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing, etc., have been able to implement the National IV gasoline on schedule as they have held a large-scale exhibition or sports meeting in the past two years.

Upgrading the oil behind the car has always been an open circle. In the past ten years, when implementing the national first, second and third national standards, the gasoline standards also lag behind automobile standards by two years, one and a half years, and one year and eight months respectively. In Europe, America, and most parts of the world, when formulating and implementing automobile emission standards, vehicles and oil have been used as a system to simultaneously implement the emission standards of oil products and automobiles to ensure the upgrading of automobile emissions.

Just last month, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued an announcement to postpone the implementation of the four national standards for heavy-duty diesel vehicles nationwide. This is the second time in two years that the Ministry of Environmental Protection has again postponed the implementation of the national standard for heavy-duty diesel vehicles nationwide. The implementation time of this standard was previously set on January 1, 2012, and this implementation was delayed until July 1, 2013. Regarding the reasons for the postponement, the Ministry of Environmental Protection stated that "the current supply of vehicle diesel fuel that meets the requirements of the Fourth National Standard is still not in place."

It is understood that the impediment to the upgrading of oil products does not lie in technology, but in the sharing of refinery upgrade costs, which has always been in a complex game process.

Clear "Yellow Label Car" in four years

Another measure proposed by the State Council at this time is that by 2015, the “Yellow Label Vehicle” registered and operated before 2005 will be basically phased out. In recent years, the "Yellow Label" car has replaced its old-for-new and scrapped policies and accelerated its elimination.

In Guangdong, according to media reports, the relevant person in charge of the Provincial Environmental Protection Agency recently revealed that in order to accelerate the elimination of yellow-standard vehicles, the provincial environmental protection agency has issued a preliminary plan, and this year the provincial government will provide 1.2 billion yuan to subsidize the elimination of yellow-standard vehicles. In addition, cities are also required to allocate yellow-standard vehicles to phase out subsidies in a ratio of 1:1. In order to increase the subsidy standards to mobilize the enthusiasm of vehicle owners to replace the yellow-labeled vehicles, speed up the phasing out of yellow-label vehicles.

It is understood that there are more than 1.3 million yellow-label vehicles in Guangdong Province, of which 70%-80% are operating yellow-labeled vehicles. The Provincial Environmental Protection Agency has entrusted relevant agencies to formulate a draft of the province's yellow label vehicle elimination plan, which focuses on the operation of yellow-labeled vehicles. The plan involves important issues such as the elimination of yellow-label vehicles and subsidies. It may be possible to give subsidies in accordance with the year of use of vehicles.