Isra-Mart srl:China's regions threaten to scupper environmental plans

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China's new emissions and pollution-cutting controls may be overcome by soaring regional growth targets, the country's top green official has warned.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection today unveiled targets to cut emissions of four major smog-producing pollutants by 1.5 per cent in 2011, and announced that nitrogen oxides and ammonia nitrogen will be included for the first time in the country's upcoming five-year pollution control programme.

Environmental Protection minister Zhou Shengxian said in the report that construction projects deemed to pollute too much will have planning applications rejected, adding that the government would also work on developing new technologies to remove sulphur, nitrogen and other polluting materials from industrial manufacturing.

China is also planning to impose emissions targets on its regions as part of efforts to reduce the enormous environmental damage – estimated at £130bn each year – its rapidly expanding economy has inflicted.

Zhou said previous policies had been successful, citing a 14 per cent drop in sulphur dioxide emissions over the previous five years, but warned a national work conference that ambitious regional growth targets could threaten the country's environmental efforts.

The fact that many provinces are aiming to grow their economies by 10 per cent this year, with some targeting a doubling of economic output over the next five years, showed the importance of bringing local development plans into line with national targets, he said.

"Some provinces have set their annual economic growth target at 14 per cent; you can imagine how much pollution that will bring," Zhou said.

Wu Changhua, Greater China director of The Climate Group in Beijing, was quoted in the China Daily newspaper echoing Zhou's fears that industrial expansion would undo the government's vision of a more balanced and sustainable development model

"When putting together the provincial targets, we find that the result is already much higher than the national plan. We have to find ways to curb this trend," he said.