China catches up with environmental goals

Preliminary statistics showed that in 2008, China's goal for reducing emissions and chemical oxygen demand (COD), two major pollutants, is catching up with its timetable of realizing green goals, claimed Zhou.

The country's 11th five-year (2006-2010) plan requires that by 2010, the emissions of sulfur dioxide and COD should reduced by 10 percent from the 2005 level.

But China fell short of the target in the first two years: by 2007, the two indexes dropped only 2.14 and 3.16 percent respectively below 2005 level, less than the expected 4 percent.

In 2008, emissions of sulfur dioxide and COD were expected to drop 7 percent and 5 percent respectively from the 2005 level, Zhou said.

China needs to "sprint" in 2009 to achieve the green goals, Zhou said, setting the task of reducing 1.9 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 1.12 million tons of COD this year.

Last year, the central government's investment on environmental protection totaled 34 billion yuan, 10 billion yuan more than the previous year.

Construction of 156 energy-intensive and heavy-polluting projects, with a total budget of 473.7 billion yuan, were either rejected or postponed by MEP.

(China Daily 01/19/2009 page4)