China says 2010 pollutant targets already met - Xinhua

Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:41pm EST

BEIJING Jan 26 (Reuters) - Chinese has already reduced emissions of major pollutants by 10 percent below 2005 levels, meeting its target a year ahead of schedule, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

China set a binding national target to reduce 2005 emission rates of sulphur dioxide, which causes acid rain, by 10 percent by the end of 2010. The greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, along with chemical oxygen demand, a measure of water pollution, was also to be reduced by 10 percent over the five-year period.

Zhou Shengxian, the minister of environmental protection, said much of the target was met thanks to the mandatory installation of scrubbers at more than 411 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity up to the end of last year, which reduced SO2 emissions by 24.6 percent compared to 2005.

Emissions of SO2 fell by 10.4 percent in 2009 alone, and would be reduced by a further 400,000 tonnes this year, he said.

Reducing chemical oxygen demand, which is considered a reliable indicator of the amount of chemical waste discharged into rivers, has proven more difficult, Zhou said, with progress varying greatly among regions.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection is not responsible for China's campaign to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which is led by the National Development and Reform Commission.

The country's carbon emissions have not yet peaked, but China plans to reduce carbon intensity -- the amount of CO2 produced per unit of GDP -- by 40-45 percent by 2020.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)







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