China dealing death blow to funeral pollution

An official report has documented how local governments are pumping millions of yuan into making funeral services less polluting.

Cremation is a major source of air pollution, so governments are upgrading cremation equipment to lower its emissions, according to the report, released on Wednesday.

It said that Fujian, Shaanxi and Hebei respectively invested 62.5 million yuan (about 10 million U.S. dollars), 20 million yuan and 14.54 million yuan to upgrade their facilities in 2014. Beijing, Jiangsu and Henan also improved their cremators.

Li Bosen, editor in chief of the report, said governments are also discouraging residents from the traditional practice of building large, extravagant tombs for deceased family members and instead encouraging them to choose more environmentally-friendly practices such as tree burial.

The report was jointly published by the 101 Research Institute of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Social Sciences Academic Press.