China steps up efforts to fight pollution

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will aim this year to reduce its emissions of sulphur dioxide by 6 percent from their 2005 levels as it steps up efforts to fight pollution, its top environmental official said in remarks published on Tuesday.

The official Xinhua news agency cited Zhou Shengxian, head of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), as saying that the government would close many small coal-fired power plants, as well as steel mills and cement plants, to cut emissions of the acid rain-causing pollutant.

Zhou also said the government aimed to reduce COD, or chemical oxygen demand, a measure of water pollution, by 5 percent from its 2005 level this year.


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Bejing, this year's olymic host city, along with many other cities in China, suffers from choking smog. This has been a major concern of the organizers of the Games because of its possible effects on the atheletes. China plans to cut the two pollution measures, Sulphur dioxide and COD, by 10 percent between 2006 and 2010.


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