BEIJING, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The sulfur dioxide emission in China fell a year-on-year 0.88 percent in the first half of this year, the first decrease in several years, said China's top economic planner on Sunday.

Ma Kai, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in his report to the ongoing 29th session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) that the decrease of sulfur dioxide was due to introduction of the sulfur-removal equipment into coal-fired power plants and efforts to close down small plants with high energy consumption and pollutants emission.

He said the per unit GDP energy consumption fell 2.78 percent in the first six months than the same period of last year.

However, the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) still increased 0.24 percent than last year, Ma said.

He said some local governments still take economic growth as the sole criterion for evaluating officials' performance and didn't introduce the energy saving goal into the evaluation system, which was the main reason for the difficulties of energy conservation and pollution reduction.

China has committed itself to improving energy efficiency – to cut energy consumption by 20 percent per unit of GDP, along with a10 percent cut in major pollutants, between 2006 and 2010.

However, China missed both the energy conservation and discharge reduction goals last year.

Its per unit of GDP energy consumption fell 1.33 percent in 2006, well short of the projected target of 4 percent.

China also failed to achieve its pollution reduction goal, with major pollutants, including sulfur dioxide emissions and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) both increasing last year.