BEIJING - China said Thursday measures it is taking to improve its environment are starting to show results, after emissions of a major air pollutant fell.
Emissions of sulphur dioxide, a main marker of air pollution, fell by 1.8 per cent year-on-year in the first three quarters of the year, Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said in a statement on the agency's website.
That compares with a 1.2-per-cent rise in 2006 from a year earlier. Zhou attributed the decrease to the installation of facilities that cut emissions of sulphur from coal-fired power plants.
China aims to cut major pollutants by 10 per cent between 2006 and 2010 but missed its target last year.
A measure of water pollution, called chemical oxygen demand, or COD, also fell fractionally, he said.
China is trying to clean up its environment, harmed by decades of policies that have stressed economic development. While it is against binding emissions caps, fearing they could harm economic growth, it is looking to technology -- such as installations on power plants -- to help cut emissions.
"This shows measures to improve environmental quality have worked," Zhou was quoted saying by China Daily newspaper.
China has some of the most polluted cities in the world and many of its rivers and lakes are full of toxins after decades of breakneck economic growth.
The stunning economic growth means it accounted for 58 per cent of carbon emissions worldwide in 2000-06, the International Energy Agency said in a report last week.
The environmental concerns extend to next summer's Beijing Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee and others voicing concern about the city's notoriously bad air pollution.
