Government takes pollution battle up a notch

China is making progress battling air pollution, but the frequent choking smog hitting vast regions in recent weeks requires further control, a senior environmental official said on Friday.

To that end, the central government has listed new binding targets in the national environment road map for the next five years.

The 338 cities under regular monitoring have had more days of good air quality - 81.4 percent of days in the first 10 months - a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent, and have seen a drop in the concentration of major air pollutants, Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of environmental protection, said at a news conference in Beijing on Friday.

However, the authorities also noted that air pollution is still at a severe level, and in some regions air quality had worsened, the vice-minister said.

Inspectors sent by the central government recently found air quality in Xinxiang, Henan province, had deteriorated, with its reading of PM2.5 - small particles that can harm the lungs - having increased by 16 percent in 2015 over the year before.

"Emissions of air pollutants have remained at a high level for a long time due to the economic growth pattern, industrial structure and energy consumption mix, making environmental pollution control a tough task," Zhao said.

"But we have confidence in reaching the improvement goals by 2017," he added.

The central government also added new binding targets, mainly related to the quality of air, water and soil, into the 13th Five-Year Plan for Protecting the Ecological Environment (2016-20), the vice-minister said.

The central government will conduct midterm assessments in 2018, and a final assessment in 2020.

The assessment will be a major index for the leading officials' performance, the plan said.

Zhao said there would be comprehensive efforts to guarantee the plan's implementation, including frequent inspections from the central government and the ministry, and public supervision.

Though air pollution control is a priority, the treatment of water and soil pollution is also important, the vice-minister said.

"What we are pursuing is the overall improvement in ecological and environmental quality by 2020," Zhao said.