Green goal missed by big margin

The nation flunked the first test in its goal of meeting ambitious energy-saving and environment-protection goals in the current five-year plan.

The target set for last year was to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 4 percent and pollutant emissions by 2 percent but only Beijing and five other provinces or municipalities, which were not named, reportedly passed the grade.

It was not revealed how much off the target the overall performance was.