Chinese officials in Guizhou told to fight pollution or forget about promotion
Ruling Communist Party tells cadres to look after the environment or face failure in their appraisals
Cadres in Guizhou will be assessed on their environmental work before they can be promoted to key positions, as the southwest province ramps up the pressure on officials to meet green targets.
This will be done in consultation with environmental protection departments, and work in this area will also be a more important part of officials’ performance appraisals, Xinhua reported.
Local cadres will be held responsible for the environment, and if an incident takes place on their watch they will fail their appraisal, the report said.
Guizhou is the latest province to pressure its local officials to join the pollution fight.
In the past, cadres who failed to take action on pollution problems were not held accountable, but recent reforms to empower environment departments have already seen significant changes, according to Hu Xingdou, an economist in Beijing.