China has achieved its pollution reduction targets ahead of schedule for two major air and water indices, Zhou Shengxian, Minister of Environmental Protection, said on November 10.

The index for sulfur dioxide, an air pollutant, dropped 13.14 percent by 2009 compared to 2005 levels after small thermal power plants and steel plants were closed.

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) index, a measure of water pollution, decreased 9.66 percent by 2009 from 2005 levels, and, in the first half of this year, it dropped another 2.39 percent.

The Chinese Government set out to reduce COD and sulfur dioxide levels by 10 percent of 2005 levels by 2010.

Environmental protection authorities will add two items to the major pollutant monitoring list in the next five years—ammoniacal nitrogen, a major water pollutant, and nitrogen oxides, a major air pollutant.