Guangdong slashes emissions despite renewed GDP growth

GUANGZHOU: Guangdong, one of the nation's economic powerhouses, has seen a steady decline in the emission of pollutants over recent years.

In 2008, the province's emission of chemical oxygen demand (COD), the main indicator of water pollution, saw a fall of 5.58 percent from 2007. Its emission of sulfur dioxide, a main indicator of air pollution, also dropped by 5.28 percent, according to statistics from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

COD refers to the quantity of oxygen required to decompose all organic matters. In total, the province emitted 1.14 million tons of COD and 963,600 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2008.