Compared with the economic growth target China sets every year or in its Five-Year Plan, its green goals of pollution control or energy efficiency have long proved much harder to achieve during most of the past three decades.

However, while the Chinese economy managed to beat its growth target by expanding 8.7 percent in a very difficult year, the country realized its sulfur-dioxide reduction goal for the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10) by the end of last year, one full year ahead of schedule.

It was part of a goal set for 2006 that the Chinese government laid out to cut emissions of major pollutants, sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand (COD) by 10 percent by this year.