China meets only half of environmental goals

China announced today that it only achieved half of its environmental goals for the period from 2000 to 2005.

Older images of Chinese making their way around on bicycles is rapidly giving way to desires by the new middle class for automobiles.

The country also depends much on highly-polluting coal to produce energy for its fast-growing economy.

Nations in the Asia Pacific region have generally been favorable to plans like the Kyoto Protocol but their ability to meet stated goals is another question.

Rapid growth in the region and an increasingly competitive spirit among the people often hampers governmental ability to handle the resulting production of polluting by-products.

One of the more successful strategies has been to implement newer more environmentally-friendly technologies, and other methods that do not rely on curbing growth.