US$4.3b on toxic chemical controling
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-22 08:56
China will spend at least 34 billion yuan (4.3 billion U.S. dollars) to phase
out persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in 10 years, a Chinese environmental
official said on Wednesday.
"This is only a preliminary calculation, and
does not include the funds needed to treat the places contaminated by POPs,"
said Zhuang Guotai, deputy director of the office for Stockholm Convention
Implementation under the State Environmental Protection Administration.
He said that the funds needed to treat the polluted areas "could be very
huge" and difficult to estimate as there is still insufficient information about
how many areas have been contaminated and how seriously they have been affected.
China has drafted a plan to phase out the world's most toxic chemicals
as required by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, he
said.
According to the plan, China will stop the production and use of
chlordane, mirex and DDT used in anti-dirt paint by 2010, and safely dispose of
electric appliances containing POPs by 2015.
By 2015, China will also
stop the production and use of POPs in pesticides.
The plan will be
submitted to the State Council for approval in July, he said. Under the
Stockholm Convention, China will have to submit its national implementation plan
to the convention's secretariat by November 11.
China signed the
Stockholm Convention in May 2001 and it came into effect in China in November
2004.
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