China will combat environmental pollution with an iron fist this year, Premier Li Keqiang said in his annual government work report Thursday, listing the reduction of energy consumption as one of the major development goals.

In a work report delivered during the third session of the 12th National People's Congress, Li pledged to promote energy efficiency, emissions reduction and environmental protection.

According to Li, the level of carbon dioxide should be cut by at least 3.1 percent this year. Both chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions should be reduced by around 2 percent, and emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides should be cut by around 3 and 5 percent, respectively.

China's government work report had not given the environmental index much importance for at least a decade, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"This is the last year for the government to meet the targets set by the 12th Five-Year Plan. Premier Li's iron hand policy shows that authorities will strengthen law enforcement and tighten supervision over environmental matters," Wang Tao, a scholar with the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, told the Global Times.

Wang believes it is not difficult to achieve these goals considering the environmental protection measures adopted last year. "Authorities should deal with various pollutants in a comprehensive way and avoid causing collateral environmental damage," he said. 

The country will strive to cut emissions of coal-based power plants and promote zero-growth of coal consumption in key areas.

Li also promised to promote new-energy vehicles, reduce vehicle exhaust emissions, raise the national fuel quality and standards and provide gasoline and diesel fuel that meets the highest national standards in key cities. All pollution-causing vehicles registered before 2005 will be banned from the road, he stressed.

China will "put great weight" behind the development of renewable energy, work actively to develop hydropower and stress safety in developing nuclear power, in addition to exploiting shale gas and coal seam gas.

Curbing water pollution and working on environmental protection taxes will also be important tasks this year.

Jia Kang, the former head of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance, said that a lack of environmental taxes is one cause of the slow progress in the country's environmental protection efforts.

"Accelerating the passing of laws on environmental taxes could make firms more aware of their environmental responsibilities. Previous measures, which mainly came in the form of fines, did not seem to affect some huge companies," Wang said, adding that the country's environmental protection campaign should go hand in hand with economic development.