July 29, 2007	Sunday	Rajab 13, 1428

BEIJING, July 28: China has announced plans to double spending on improving energy efficiency and slashing pollution, in an effort to combat its dismal environmental record. The government will spend an extra 10 billion yuan ($1.33 billion) on reducing energy use and cutting pollution, according to a statement from the National Development and Reform Commission, the state body responsible for economic planning.

The move brings the annual total investment in the area to 21.3 billion yuan.

Nine billion of the sum will be spent on energy efficiency and will target 10 “major energy saving projects,” the statement said without giving any details of the schemes.

The state Xinhua news agency said late Friday the money would focus on making energy savings within government bodies, as well as pushing for more efficient use of oil and developing oil-replacement technologies.

China's booming economy -- which last year grew at 11.1 per cent -- has come at a huge cost to the environment with up to 70 per cent of its waterways polluted and air quality in its cities among the worst in the world.

The Chinese government had set a goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 per cent by 2010, but energy consumption fell only 1.23 per cent last year, less than one third of the stated annual goal.

China also missed last year's targets to reduce by two per cent emissions of major air and water pollutants, as levels instead rose by almost two per cent.

Government figures cited by Xinhua on Friday said better results had been achieved between January and May this year with energy consumption falling by two per cent compared to the same period last year.—AFP