Rewards program helps province's air

Air pollution emissions in Shandong province fell during the first quarter of the year, thanks to a market-based air quality incentive program that could end up being rolled out across the country.

The province's environmental protection bureau said the concentration of four major pollutants - fine particles, inhalable particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide - decreased during the first three months. They fell by 2.2 percent, 3.8 percent, 18.2 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.

Because of the improvement, 15 municipal governments in the province that performed particularly well will get to share a 39.37 million yuan ($6.09 million) fund. However, local governments in the Shandong cities of Jining and Zaozhuang will have to pay penalties of 4.56 million yuan and 960,000 yuan respectively, because of their deteriorating air quality, the provincial finance bureau said.