Chinese government leaders and major companies were put on notice on Sunday that energy efficiency and pollutant reduction will be key factors in their performance assessments, Xinhua news agency said. They should be set as indexes for assessing economic and social development and the performance of government and company leaders, the State Council, or cabinet, warned in a circular. "They will receive a negative performance assessment if they fail to reach goals for energy efficiency and pollutant discharge reduction regardless of achievements in other fields," Xinhua said.

Last year, the government set a goal to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent and major pollutants discharge by 10 percent in the 11th five-year plan period ending 2010. Under the goal, China had to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 4 percent and discharges of major pollutants by 2 percent last year. But it fell short of the targets.

"Greater efforts for efficiency and discharge reduction are urgently needed to deal with global weather changes and a responsibility we should shoulder," the circular added. "If we fail to take immediate measures to reverse the situation, it will be difficult for us not only to make obvious progress in energy saving and discharge reduction this year, but also to reach the overall goal for the 11th five-year plan period," the circular said.

The State Council issued the General Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Pollutant Discharge Reduction. Xinhua said the major targets for the year 2010 included:

(Planet Ark, 04/06/2007)