China's top environmental watchdog yesterday vowed to expand the tough green measures to more industries and regions to ensure that approvals for projects found wanting are suspended.

Vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Pan Yue said the next round of battle against foul water and air would focus on industries and regions that had not reduced pollution and energy consumption, areas along polluted rivers and lakes, and places suffering from serious pollution accidents and having high potential environmental risks.

China set its target of cutting energy consumption by 20 percent per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) and major pollutants by 10 percent from 2005 to 2010.

But it flunked its first test last year. Its Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), an index of water pollution, and sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission grew by 1.9 percent and 2.4 percent in 2006, according to SEPA figures.

Following the failure, SEPA took the "strictest measure of project approval restriction" a couple of weeks ago to crack down on two of the most powerful and profitable groups in China: local governments and large energy providers, Pan said.

It suspended the approvals for all new projects in four industrial cities Tangshan in Hebei Province, Luliang in Shanxi Province, Liupanshui in Guizhou Province and Laiwu in Shandong Province.

Four of China's five biggest energy groups, Huaneng, Datang, Huadian and Guodian, too, were not spared. They were ordered to halt all new projects.

"Huaneng Group has shut down the polluting generators and is installing desulfurization devices at its Wulashan Power Plant in Inner Mongolia," Huaneng Group Assistant General Manager Hu Shihai told China News Agency recently.

The other three firms, too, have shut down their offending generators, and are discussing with the local governments ways to install desulfurization equipment.

Despite that Pan has warned that some projects could still be running without approval from related departments, ignoring SEPA's warning.

(China Daily 02/01/2007 page3)