1st LD-Writethru: Top legislature reviews environmental report

A report on China's environmental protection record in 2015 was tabled to the top legislature for review on Monday, the first review under the new Environmental Protection Law.

At its bi-monthly session from Monday through Thursday, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) began to deliberate a State Council report detailing the environmental situation and status of last year's environmental protection goals.

The new Environmental Protection Law, which took effect in early 2015, stipulates that governments at the county level and above should report annually to the people's congress at the same level or its standing committee on the environmental situation and progress of environmental protection goals.

The review will help strengthen the top legislature's supervision, ensure the implementation of the new law and set an example for local legislatures to conduct similar reviews.

According to the report, the country's environment improved in 2015, but issues such as heavy pollution, ecosystem damage and high environmental risks must still be addressed.

Of 338 cities at the prefecture level and above, a total of 73, or 21.6 percent, met national clear air standards, the report said, adding days with good air quality accounted for 76.7 percent of the year and those with heavy pollution made up 3.2 percent.

The annual average PM2.5 and PM10 densities in those cities were 42.9 percent and 24.3 percent higher than the national limits, respectively.

Meanwhile, ozone pollution has become increasingly prominent, the report noted.

It also highlighted serious water pollution in the Haihe, Huaihe, Liaohe and Yellow rivers, and soil contamination in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the old industrial base in the country's northeast.

China beat its annual target to cut the emissions of principal pollutants in 2015, and met the obligatory environmental targets set for 2011-2015 as scheduled, the report said.

Last year, China's emissions of chemical oxygen demand, sulfur dioxide, ammonia nitrogen and oxynitride dropped by 3.1 percent, 5.8 percent, 3.6 percent, and 10.9 percent respectively from the previous year, and by 12.9 percent, 18 percent, 13 percent and 18.6 percent from 2010.

The forest coverage rate increased from 20.36 percent in 2010 to 21.66 percent in 2015, with the forest stock volume reaching 15.1 billion cubic meters, according to the report.

The report attributed the progress to strengthened legislative work, strict law enforcement and supervision, greater efforts to reduce air, water and soil pollution, industrial restructuring and increased spending.

For instance, central government spending on energy conservation and environmental protection rose 13.9 percent year on year to 278.2 billion yuan (42.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, the report showed.

This year, China will step up efforts to raise the percentage of good air quality days to 77 percent in cities at the prefecture level and above, contain water pollution and reduce the emissions of air pollutants, the report said. Endi