China has set a goal of reducing its major pollutant emissions by more than 30 to 40 percent by 2015 in its latest 12th five-year plan (2010-2015) for environment protection, according to a Wednesday report in the People's Daily newspaper. Compared with the 11th five-year plan, more indicators, greater pressure, stricter requirements and much higher investment needs are featured in China's latest environmental protection outline, issued by the State Council, or China's Cabinet, an unnamed official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in the report. The outline specifies 7 major indicators, with ammonia nitrogen and nitric oxide added as two new indicators, Xinhua quoted the official as saying. The plan calls for ammonia nitrogen and nitric oxide emissions to be cut by 10 percent by 2015, while chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfur dioxide emissions should drop by 8 percent, the report said. COD and sulfur dioxide emissions dropped by 12.45 percent and 14.29 percent, respectively, from 2005 to 2010. The five-year outline also calls for an investment of 3.4 trillion yuan (539 billion U.S. dollars) in environmental protection efforts, or 1.4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product during the period, the official was quoted as saying. Eight major projects, including reducing major pollutant emissions and resolving environmental problems that affect people's health, will require a investment of nearly 1.5 trillion yuan, the official said. Increasing the number of pollution control indicators, expanding pollution control regions and reinforcing restrictions on total pollution volume in large industries will be effective ways to reduce major pollutant emissions, the official said in the report. He said the number of major cities covered by China's air quality index system has expanded from 113 to 333, with stricter assessment standards established as well.
