China has achieved pollution reduction targets set five years ago with six months to spare, its environment minister said yesterday, as international leaders gathered in Paris to negotiate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
中国环保部昨日称，中国已提前半年完成了5年前设定的污染物减排目标。目前各国领导人正齐聚巴黎举行减少温室气体排放的谈判。
However, Chen Jining, environment minister, cautioned that China needed a further 30-50 per cent cut in pollutants in order to achieve a “substantial” improvement in its damaged air, soil and water, in a report carried by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
然而，据官方的新华社报道，环保部部长陈吉宁警告称，中国需要进一步减少30%-50%的污染物排放，才能实现中国受损空气、土壤及水源的“明显”改善。
Beginning in 2010, China pledged to cut emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and ammonia nitrogen as well as chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of organic pollutants in water.
从2010年开始，中国承诺减少二氧化硫、氮氧化物、氨氮以及化学需氧量（COD，衡量水中有机污染物的指标）的排放。
The goals were incorporated in its 12th five-year plan, which concludes this year, and were primarily tackled by installing emissions-control equipment on power plants, steel mills and other industrial facilities.
这些减排目标被纳入了今年结束的“十二五”规划，主要通过在发电厂、炼钢厂及其他工业设施安装排放控制设备来实现。
During those five years, choking air pollution has become a top source of discontent among China’s increasingly prosperous urban middle classes.
在过去五年中，令人窒息的空气污染已经成为中国日益富裕的城市中产阶层的首要不满。
This month the north-eastern city of Shenyang was blacked out by thick brown smog as the city’s heating boilers revved up at the same time, creating the worst recorded pollution in the country in two years. Yesterday, Beijing raised its air pollution alert to “orange” for the first time in 13 months as the concentration of tiny particulates known as PM2.5 hit 300 on a scale in which 50 is considered dangerous to health.
本月，中国东北的沈阳市被棕色的浓雾笼罩，该市的供暖锅炉同时投入运行，创造了中国两年以来最为严重的污染纪录。昨天，北京发布了13个月以来首次空气污染“橙色”警告，被称为PM2.5的微小颗粒浓度达到300，而PM2.5达到50即被认为有害健康。
Beijing has been enveloped by smog for most of November, following an unusually clear period that some attributed to a slowing economy. Mr Chen said 20m tonnes of major pollutants are still discharged every year in China.
在经历了空气异常清新的一段时期（有人将其归因于经济放缓）后，11月的大部分时间里北京一直被雾霾笼罩。陈吉宁称，中国每年仍然排放2000万吨的主要污染物。
China estimates that its carbon emissions will peak around 2030, as economic growth slows and the economy matures enough to shift away from heavy, pollution-intensive industry.
中国估计，随着经济增长放缓、以及经济逐渐成熟到足以摆脱重工业和污染密集型产业，中国碳排放量将在2030年左右达到顶峰。