Eastern province links officials' promotion with air quality
Xinhua, January 17, 2015 Adjust font size:
The government of east China's Zhejiang Province has decided to tackle its air pollution in a unique way: by connecting it to officials' job promotions.
In line with a freshly published guideline on air pollution, starting from 2015, officials of all prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang will have to attain good scores in two separate systems that evaluate local air quality to secure promotions.
According to the document, one system will be based on the average annual PM 2.5 readings in these cities, and the other will take into consideration energy consumption, car emission control and industrial restructuring.
PM 2.5 is a particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 micrograms that caused hazardous smog.
Both systems are marked out of 100. There will be four marking levels: excellent, good, borderline and fail.
The Zhejiang government said the evaluation will be an important criteria and will be open to public supervision. The provincial authorities will allocate environmental funds to cities that do well and mete out penalties to those that perform poorly.
In recent years, heavy smog has caused growing concerns over health hazards. China has taken a variety of measures to contain air pollution, including restrictions on industrial production and vehicle use. Endi