Wen: Enviromental situation is "grim", "urgent"

Premier Wen Jiabao said more had to be done to deal with China's environmental situation on Monday, the South China Morning Post reported. Wen made his comments while presiding over the first meeting of a national taskforce created in April to oversee national environmental goals. "The situation we are facing is very grim, so we must have a strong sense of crisis and urgency. The work is a test of the government's accountability and also the responsibility China should bear for the international community," he said. He admitted that pollution problems were "outstanding" and that "many obstacles" stood in the way of environmental goals set out in the country's 11th five-year-plan. The plan calls for reducing energy consumption by 20% from 2005 levels by 2010. China only lowered energy consumption by 1.2% last year, short of its 4% target for the year. The country has also been named the world's top carbon dioxide emitter by a Dutch government research group, whose findings Beijing has criticized as flawed.