China has outlined its progress in reducing carbon emissions. Last November, the nation pledged to reduce emissions by up to 45 per cent by 2020. In the first four years of its 11th Five-Year Plan, China has advanced toward its goal. Vice Minister for the National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenghua, made the comment on the sidelines of the ongoing NPC annual session in Beijing.

Protecting the environment and conserving resources... That is China's basic state policy.

This year marks the end of the country's current five-year plan. The outline of the plan has set targets to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent, and the total emission of major pollutants by 10 percent.

The endeavor has achieved progress.

Xie Zhenghua said, "In the previous four years of the plan, the energy consumption per unit of GDP in China fell by 14.38 percent. But challenges remain as we're still far behind the targets."

This year, authorities plan to close down small thermal power units with a capacity of 10 million kilowatts, phasing out iron production capacity of 25 million tons, and steel production capacity of six million tons. And there will be greater financial support from the central government for emission reduction, with over eighty billion yuan, or around US$12 billion, worth of funds expected.

Xie Zhenghua said, "In the next five-year plan, we will speed up the readjustment of economic restructuring, and transformation of growth mode. It's an important strategic task for national economic and social development."

Preliminary considerations for emission reduction in the next plan include expanding pollutant indicators. These are based on the results of China's first census on pollution sources.

(CCTV March 10, 2010)