China sets up station to monitor S.China Sea climate, pollution: ministry

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has built a monitoring station in a disputed area of the South China Sea to track regional pollution and climate change, environment ministry spokesman Liu Youbin said on Wednesday.

The station on the Nansha Islands, known outside China as the Spratlys, has been set up to detect major air pollutants like PM2.5, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ozone, and will also measure concentrations of climate warming carbon dioxide, the ministry said.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and David Stanway; editing by Richard Pullin)