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BEIJING, May 31-- China made solid steps in 2018 toward the goals of ecology and environment under the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), according to a recent communique. The country's ecological and environmental quality improved continuously last year, with pollutant discharge and carbon dioxide emissions being further reduced, said the communique issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE). County-level areas with good air quality accounted for 44.7 percent of the country's total land size, up 2.7 percent year on year, while carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP dropped about 4 percent, 0.1 percentage points higher than the annual target. Some 338 cities enjoyed more good air in 2018, with average number of good air quality days up 1.3 percentage points and the density of PM2.5 declining 9.3 percent from the previous year. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region reported good air quality on 50.5 percent of days, up 1.2 percentage points from one year earlier, while the share of good air quality days in the Yangtze-River Delta increased 2.5 percentage points to 74.1 percent. Water quality also improved last year, seeing an increase of 3.1 percentage points in surface water cross sections categorized as good-quality. The MEE also reported a notable improvement in the marine ecosystem and environment. Inshore waters of good quality accounted for 74.6 percent, up 6.7 percentage points from 2017. | 
