Government advisers and green campaigners expressed dismay at the lack of progress in tackling the mainland's worsening environment, despite Beijing's renewed pledges to combat climate change and pollution problems.
Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday that severe pollution and high energy use remained big challenges despite the government's costly campaign to repair the environment.
Speaking at the opening of the National People's Congress, he vowed Beijing would 'unswervingly' push the anti-pollution drive and address climate change.
But his renewed promises failed to cheer mainland environmentalists, who said the damage was a lot worse than Mr Wen has said and were unhappy with the government's inability to reverse the situation.
They said Mr Wen had talked little about the grave situation in dealing with global warming, and the speech was short of pledges to do more to help make the international climate change campaign a success.
According to Mr Wen, Beijing reported progress in curbing the emission of major pollutants and promoting energy efficiency last year, the second time since 2006.
