China will close down its worst polluting facilities as part of a new plan for sustainable economic growth.

In a speech at the opening meeting of the Fifth Session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) yesterday Premier Wen Jiabao outlined a new vision for a wealthier, greener China.

The target gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been scaled down to 8 percent this year, compared with 10.7 percent in 2006.

After earlier failing to meet energy consumption targets, China wants to reduce major pollution by 10 percent and energy consumption for per unit of GDP by 20 percent from 2005 to 2010, Wen said.

In 2006, sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand edged up slightly.

Wen blamed slow industrial restructuring, growth of heavy industry and backward production facilities for China's excess pollution and energy consumption last year.

"This year, on the basis of structural improvements, improved productivity, reduced consumption of energy and environmental protection, GDP is forecast to grow by about 8 percent," Wen said.

"Meeting these two mandatory targets cannot be revised, so we must work resolutely to reach them."

China plans to take "strong measures" to conserve energy, lower energy consumption and protect the environment this year.

Under new plans to reduce pollution, small coal-firing plants with a total capacity of 10 million kilowatts will be shut down, as will outdated production facilities in the cement, electrolytic aluminium, ferrous alloy, coke and calcium carbide industries.

"It is very impressive for the Chinese leader to highlight environmental problems in such a high-profile report," Yang Ailun, campaigner manager of Climate and Energy from Greenpeace's Beijing Office, said.

"But most of the measures to combat pollution and save energy mentioned by Wen are just effective in the short term. China needs to reform its energy structure to move away from its dependence on coal burning, which provides about 70 percent of the country's energy."

Daniel J. Dudek, chief economist of the Environmental Defense Fund, which is based in New York City, told China Daily: "We are glad to see that overall targets are emphasized for the entire five-year plan and an integrated index and evenly divided yearly reduction targets of energy efficiency and total emission discharge are no longer mandated in the premier's report.

"It is also good that a monitoring and evaluation system is recommended to facilitate the achievement of these targets."

Zhou Shengxian, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, told a symposium on pollution emission cuts last month, that he was "very confident" of China meeting pollution reduction targets in 2007, provided the measures could be fully enforced.

(China Daily March 6, 2007)