BEIJING -- Lawmakers deliberated an environment report in panel discussions at the ongoing bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee Monday.

They noted the steady improvement of China's environment in 2018 and called for enhancing the strategic willpower of "building an ecological civilization" as well as sustaining the momentum to prevent and control pollution.

Gao Hucheng, a lawmaker, said ecological protection had to be strengthened in a steadfast manner, targeting prominent problems.

Lawmaker Xu Shaoshi said the heavy chemical industry had demonstrated a trend to speed up since the second half of 2018 and might increase the pressure to control discharge and pollution.

"It will bounce back if environment protection gets loosened, thus the work on environment protection should be unremitting," he said.