Chinese officials or enterprise leaders failing in their energy conservation and emission reduction efforts will face scrutiny by a strict "one ballot veto," an environmental official said Thursday in Beijing.

"Failure or success in achieving environmental targets have become an important assessment of local government performance," said Zhang Lijun, vice director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), at a press conference on energy conservation.

He said the evaluation system would be implemented throughout the country and was a "unified requirement" of the Party and State Council.

Xie Zhenhua, deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission, told the press conference that officials who failed to meet targets would have to make a public explanation and also undergo public supervision.

"As long as emission reduction targets are not met or effective measures are not taken in time, officials concerned will have a fail on their evaluation sheet."

Such government officials and enterprise leaders would also not be entitled to any honorary titles that year. In addition, high-pollution and high-consumption projects to be set up in their respective region would be suspended, Xie added.

Zhang said while the situation of energy conservation and emission reduction was "quite severe," the work was "going smoothly" this year. Party committees and governments at all levels had strengthened efforts in this regard.

Statistics during the first three quarters revealed sulfur dioxide emissions in China fell 1.81 percent and chemical oxygen demand, a measure of water pollution, dropped 0.28 percent.

Xie said China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) dropped three percent year-on-year in the first three quarters.

China has vowed to cut energy consumption used to generate per unit of GDP by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010. Major pollutant emissions were also expected to drop by 10 percent.

Xie said China would take the full economic, legal and administrative measures to reach the mandatory targets, the government's solemn promise to the people.

Zhang added to treat the country's worsening water conditions, the environmental watchdog had adopted a strategy of "letting major rivers have a rest" to resume their natural appearance and ecological cycle.

A package of measures was going to be taken to ensure water quality, such as strict controls on pollutant discharge, especially toxic and hazardous materials.

"Some seasonal rivers could be dangerous in certain periods such as low-water days. Efforts should be made to strengthen water protection in sensitive river periods," Zhang said.

Strict control should also be imposed on industrial pollutants, he said, adding enterprises which discharged pollutants must obtain environmental permits. In addition, listed companies should submit their environmental records for public scrutiny.

A "green-credit policy", which required SEPA to hand over lists of heavy polluters to the central bank and the regulatory commission, was to be promoted to determine polluting enterprises access of bank loans in view of their environmental performance, Zhang said.

The official said SEPA, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, was to strengthen its supervision over Chinese exporters and ban exporting at the expense of environmental pollution.

Projects aiming to "make villages clean" were to be promoted to address rural sewage and garbage problems, Zhang said, adding regions experiencing economic boom should take the lead to pilot the projects.

The use of chemical fertilizers should also be gradually reduced and the local government should determine the scope of poultry-raising based on environmental capacity.

Efforts should also be made to optimize waste water treatment facilities, increase urban sewage handling capacity and improve the sewage treatment toll system.

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2007)