China’s energy-intensive and polluting industries continued to grow too fast in 2013, putting pressures on the environment and causing air quality to worsen further, Reuters reports.
The country’s pollution agency said China is still too slow when it comes to reforming its resource-intensive economy, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement to mark a report on pollution in 74 Chinese cities last year.
“The pace of restructuring and upgrading industries has slowed, the mode of development remains crude, and emissions of atmospheric pollutants have long exceeded environmental capacity,” it said, in explaining why air quality got worse.
Just three of the 74 cities studied fully complied with state pollution standards in 2013, the environment ministry said.
Rapid urbanization creates dust from housing and road construction, and traffic boosted emissions.
Premier Li Keqiang “declared war” on pollution in a major policy address this month.