Ensuring clean air will no longer be the task of a single city - it will be the responsibility of a cluster of cities whose pollutants affect each other, according to a plan being finalized by the government.

The economic and industrial hubs - the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region - will be the pioneers executing the plan, Environmental Protection Minister Zhou Shengxian said while presenting a report on controlling air pollution to the top legislature yesterday.

The plan is likely to include regional emission caps, Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of environment, told reporters.