(BEIJING, Nov. 16) -- The owners and constructors of most of the venues to be used for the 2008 Olympic Games have decided or pledged to use environment-friendly refrigerants.

This is in line with the guidelines of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), which provide that no venues will be allowed to use chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as refrigerants for their air-conditioning system, or fire extinguishers containing halons.

BOCOG has since 2002 worked out the guidelines for the construction and renovation of Olympic projects under the guide of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Recently, the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection made a survey of the air-conditioning system and fire extinguishing equipment for all sites of the Beijing-based Olympic venues, including 13 planned to be built from scratch, 10 to be renovated and 9 temporary ones.

The survey found that the owners of the 29 venues had decided or promised to use high quality environment-friendly refrigerants, while the rest of three venues will make their decisions known later.

To be specific, 21 venues have decided to apply the central air conditioning system. Out of the 18 venues which have completed purchase contracts, 14 chose such refrigerants as R-134a and the other four will use lithium bromide.

Seventeen venues have installed dispersed air conditioning system, with refrigerants overwhelmed by R410a. Another 9 venues decided to take in R134a and R407c.

China, a developing country, pledged to phase out CFCs by 2010, and HCFC, which causes less damage to ozone layer, by 2040. In fact, those Olympic venues whose purchase contracts were completed, have already met the government requirements in this regard. Other venues have all pledged to use non-ozone-depleting hydro-fluoro-carbon (HFC) or lithium bromide as refrigerants for their air conditioning system. That means the owners and constructors of the Olympic venues can fulfill the national goal for the implementation of the relevant international conventions 30-odd years ahead of time. The positive move will undoubtedly lay a foundation for the nation-wide fulfillment of the obligations under the international conventions.

As far as the fire extinguishers are concerned, 18 venues have decided to use such environment-friendly agents as heptafluoropropane (HFC-227ea), trifluoromethane (HFC-23), IG 541 and ammonium phosphate (ABC dry powder extinguisher), with the rest of venues obliged to not using halon as fire extinguishing agent.