The Chinese government has set its 2011 target to reduce the emission of four major pollutants, cutting them by 1.5 percent year on year.

These main pollutants are Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), sulfur dioxide, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrogen oxide. Ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxide were newly added to the country's major pollutants monitoring list in accordance with its environmental protection plan from 2011 to 2015.

Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental protection, said Thursday at a national meeting on 2010 environmental protection that while experiencing quick economic development, the country is also facing increasing energy consumption and rising heavy metal, soil, dangerous waste and chemical pollution.

According to Zhou, China will impose higher pollutant emission standards for paper-making, textiles, leather, chemical plants and other heavy-polluting industries.

More efforts will also be made to control emissions of motor vehicles, build sewage processing plants at the county level and continue research on developing technology to remove sulfur, saltpeter, nitrogen and other polluting materials during industrial manufacturing.

In addition, the country will also issue more policies, such as providing financial support for processing pollutants and collecting charges over emissions from motor vehicles on a trial basis, Zhou said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2011)