China Approves Five-year Program for Environment Protection        

China's State Council has approved in principle a five-year environmental protection program that sets out guidelines, major tasks and measures for the government to tackle pollution.
    The program has put "pollution control and prevention" as its focus with the aim of achieving the environmental protection targets set by the government last year.
    The government set goals in its five-year program to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent and major pollutant discharges by 10 percent in the Eleventh Five-year Program period ending 2010.
    The tasks laid out mainly included:
    1. Accelerating economic restructuring to create an industrial system that will aid resource conservation and environmental protection, along with the control of inappropriate development activities.
    2. Improving supervision, management and law enforcement of pollution.
    3. Advancing environmental science and technology through innovation to improve environmental protection capability.
    4. Reinforcing environment education to enhance the public's awareness of eco-system protection.