Ministry steps up air pollution curbs

The country is to strengthen its efforts to reduce pollutant emissions in response to complaints from the public about a lack of improvement in air quality, the national environmental watchdog said on Friday.

Reductions in emissions of four major pollutants - ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and chemical oxygen demand - last year are thought to have met the annual targets, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.

Emissions of all four fell by at least 2 percent year-on-year, with nitrogen oxides falling the most, by 6 percent, the best performance in the past five years.