Tuesday, August 22 2006 10:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: China has for the first time set up two advisory committees to assist the Government in creating effective policies on environment protection issues.

"Eighty-six environment protection experts were selected as the members of the think-tank named 'the State Environment Counsel Committee' and 'the Science and Technology Committee' for the State Environmental Pro Administration (SEPA), Zhou Shengxian, head of the SEPA," he said.

"China is facing a great deal of environment challenges and this is a time when democracy in policy making is vital," Zhou said, adding that SEPA will no longer monopolise the decision making process.

Among the advisors are 30 academicians with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and some retired SEPA officials.

"In the past, our grave mistake was that we made environmental protection decisions without using scientific and democratic means," said Qu Geping, a committee member and former SEPA chief.

"The setting up of this think-tank is an unprecedented and important move," Qu said.

Meanwhile, Zhou, who assumed charge late last year after his predecessor, Xie Zhenhua was sacked following the worst river pollution in northeast China's Songhua River, has blamed fraudulent project approval procedures and slow construction of pollution control facilities for the rise in pollutant emission in the first half of the year. "Discharge of major pollutants in 17 provinces rose over the first six months, despite the government's pledge to cut down emissions by two per cent at the end of the year," he said.

The emission of sulphur dioxide had increased by 5.8 per cent compared with the same period last year. China discharged 25.49 million tons of sulphur dioxide in 2005, making it the world's top emitter. Nearly 85 per cent was industrial emission, coming mainly from a large number of coal-burning projects.

The country has promised a ten per cent reduction of the total sulphur dioxide emissions by 2010.

"It is clear the conflict between economic growth and environment protection is coming to a head," Zhou was quoted as saying by the official sources.

"Frauds in project approval were prominent, with many projects passing their environmental assessment without fulfilling the necessary criteria," Zhou said, adding that in some counties only 30 per cent of the projects had been checked for pollution control measures before getting construction licenses.

"And nearly half of the firms, even though they passed proper environmental appraisals, failed to carry out pollution control measures as required during the construction process," Zhou added.

"A Government probe into the construction of projects with US$ 12,500 of investment in the first six months showed that almost 40 per cent of projects in eight provinces had violations in approval procedure concerning pollution control," Zhou said.