Appraisals to facilitate clean air endeavor

Local government officials who fail to achieve their annual airborne pollution reduction targets may be criticized directly by top leaders, under an assessment method released by the central government on Tuesday.

Zhai Qing, vice-minister for environmental protection, said that beginning this year, assessment of officials for their anti-pollution efforts will be divided into two parts.

Their performance on air quality improvement based on targets set by the State Council will account for half of the assessment marks given to local government officials during annual appraisals.