The government yesterday announced it will elevate the State Environmental Protection Administration to a new "super" Ministry of Environment Protection to fight pollution, but admitted that even if it meets emission targets China's air and water will still be dirty.

Unfettered growth over the past three decades has crippled China's already fragile ecosystems, and the government has tried measures ranging from political shaming to banning environmental offenders from listing on the stock market, hoping to jolt the mindset of officials long taught to value GDP over greenery.

But many have proved resistant.

"Some of the policies put forward by the central government have not been properly implemented at the local level and in some places they are not completed or in place," Zhang Lijun, deputy chief of the SEPA, told a press conference on the sidelines of the parliament session in Beijing yesterday.

China will check provincial governments' performances in conserving energy and reducing pollutant emissions, and the results, to be taken as a major index for administration evaluation, will be publicized in May or June.

Xie Zhenhua, vice minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, said about 1,000 key enterprises are also under scrutiny and their performances will be examined by provincial governments.

The provincial governments are required to publicize the results of their checks on enterprises in March, Xie said.

Those who miss the annual goals in energy conservation and emission reduction, either governments or enterprises, will be required to explain and take measures for improvement within a set time.

They will also be denied any honor or award, and the approval of new high energy-consuming projects in the province or of the enterprise will be suspended, Xie said.

The check results will be delivered to the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which is responsible for official evaluation and promotion, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, a regulator of state-owned enterprises.

In 2006, the SEPA signed a letter of responsibility for cutting sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand with the provincial governments and five power companies.

In 2007, the country was able to report a fall in both chemical oxygen demand, a main index of water pollution, and the total emission of sulfur dioxide, a main air pollutant.

But Zhang admitted it will not be easy to cut total energy consumption by about 20 percent and the emission of major pollutants by 10 percent by 2010, a goal the government set in 2006.

The central government, nevertheless, is confident of reaching the goal, he said, citing the 10 measures Premier Wen Jiabao announced in his work report last Wednesday.

The measures for energy conservation and emission reduction, including scrapping outdated production capacity in electricity, steel, cement, coal and paper-making, are "extremely practical," he said.