Environment Minister Chen Jining announced that China met all its emission reduction goals set for the 12th Five-year Plan period. Over the past five years China set up the largest air monitoring network among developing countries.

Last year China’s discharges of chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide fell by three to nine percent. And the PM 2.5 level in the 74 cities that have adopted the new air quality standard dropped by 14.1 percent.

The minister revealed that in 2016 China will further reduce PM 2.5 in cities above the prefecture level by three percent, and increase the days of good air quality there to 75 percent of the year. The share of surface water above Class III will reach 66 percent, and that below Class V fall to nine percent. The emissions of chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen will slip by another two percent, and those of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide by three percent. The release of volatile organic compounds will remain stable.