Over 3 trillion yuan for environment

A Chinese worker stacks the environmental-friendly “green” coal bricks at a plant in Shenyang, northeast China’s Liaoning province yesterday. China is to invest more than three trillion yuan (440 billion USD) in environmental protection over five years

China is to invest more than three trillion yuan (440 billion dollars) in environmental protection over five years from 2011, state media said yesterday, as the country battles widespread pollution.
Wu Xiaoqing, deputy head of China’s environmental protection ministry, said a third of the overall investment would go towards the operating costs of pollution control facilities, the official People’s Daily newspaper said.
The investment period refers to China’s next five-year economic development plan, which begins in 2011.
The comments came as negotiators at crunch talks in Copenhagen were racing against time to broker a deal to combat climate change beyond 2012.
China, the world’s biggest carbon polluter, has pledged to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels.
However, experts say its emissions could still double given economic growth projections.
Heavy pollution is widespread in the Asian nation, which relies on coal for 70 percent of its fast-growing energy needs and is home to countless coal-burning power plants spewing greenhouse gases.
China’s rapid industrialisation in recent decades, prioritisation of economic growth over environmental protection and soaring sales of cars and other pollution sources have contributed to the problem.