The Hebei provincial environmental protection office will provide a monthly report on major emissions-reduction projects, after April, to make certain that they reach their annual air and water protection goals.

All environmental protection projects involving air and water emissions reductions will have to follow five steps -- pre-planning, construction, installing equipment, debugging, and evaluation -- and supervisory departments will use these to provide inspection results every month. Any company that is behind schedule in protection efforts will be subject to penalties, such as a decrease in production, and notice of a failed assessment, which is related to future production quotas.

The emission-reduction results of every company will have a major impact on the environmental protection performance province-wide. Hebei has 171 emissions-reduction projects for polluted water and air in 2013, with 72 aimed at controlling exhaust emissions, thanks to the province’s problem with heavy air pollution since the start of this year.