Leaders of China's governments and major companies have been put on notice that energy efficiency and pollutant-discharge reduction will be key factors in performance assessments.

The State Council, or cabinet, released the official warning yesterday.

Energy efficiency and pollutant-discharge reduction should be set as indices for assessing economic and social development in all localities and the performance of government and company leaders, the State Council said in a circular.

They will receive a negative performance assessment if they fail to reach goals for energy efficiency and pollutant-discharge reduction regardless of other achievements.

Last year, the government set a goal to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent and major pollutants discharge by 10 percent in the 11th five-year plan ending 2010.

Under the goal, the nation was expected to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by four percent and discharges of major pollutants by two percent last year.

But China fell short, said Premier Wen Jiabao in his government work report to the national legislature in March.

Nobody has been blamed nor taken responsibility for the failure.

The "excessively fast" growth of electricity, steel, nonferrous metals, construction materials, oil-processing and chemical industries in the first quarter created difficulties in fulfilling the goal, said the circular on the government General Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Pollutant Discharge Reduction.

The six industries account for nearly 70 percent of the entire industrial sector's energy consumption and sulfur dioxide discharges, which grew by 20.6 percent in the first quarter, 6.6 percentage points higher than the same period a year earlier.

China has paid "a huge cost in terms of resources and the environment" for its rapid economic growth, and the people "have many complaints about environmental pollution," said the circular.

Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to global warming and aroused concern internationally. "Greater efforts for efficiency and discharge reduction are urgently needed to deal with global weather changes - a responsibility we should shoulder," it said.

"If we fail to take immediate measures to reverse the situation, it will be difficult for us not only to make obvious progress in energy saving and discharge reduction this year, but also to reach the overall goal for the 11th five-year plan period."

To ensure energy efficiency and discharge reduction, the State Council issued the General Work Plan, asking all local authorities, government departments and major companies to report their own detailed plans before June 30.