Shanxi leader boasts of reduction in deadly mine blasts and pollution
Shanxi governor Yu Youjun has declared a preliminary victory in his bold attempts to cut the number of deadly coal mine blasts and clean up the coal-rich province's pollution despite resistance from grass-roots officials and the failure to meet a key energy-saving target.
He said on the sidelines of the National People's Congress meeting that pilot schemes to charge pollution control fees and royalties on mining permits had helped the authorities finance the expensive campaign to repair Shanxi's tainted image.
'For the first time in the past two decades, we saw robust gross domestic growth of 11.8 per cent and the reduction in emissions of major pollutants in Shanxi last year,' he said.
While the country recorded an increase in sulfur dioxide emissions last year despite an earlier pledge to reduce them, Shanxi managed to cut emissions of the acid rain-causing pollutant by nearly 38,000 tonnes by shutting down thousands of small and illegal mines, he said.
But the province, the country's main energy base and biggest supplier of coal and coke, missed an energy efficiency target pledged by Mr Yu a year ago.
'Although our arduous campaign has seen a two to three per cent cut in energy consumption per unit of GDP, it still lags behind the 5.6 per cent target I set,' he admitted.