China's environmental chief 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.

A power plant on the outskirts of Zhangjiakou. More than 1,500 factories in southern China had been closed down in the past three years due to the pollution and environmental hazards they posed.[AFP/file]

Discharge of major pollutants in 17 provinces rose over the first six months, despite the government's pledge to cut down emissions by two percent at the end of the year, said Zhou Shengxian, director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration.

The emission of sulphur dioxide had increased by 5.8 percent compared with the same period last year.

"It is clear the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection is coming to a head," Zhou said in an interview with Xinhua to reiterate the government's vows to clamp down on pollution.

"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 percent 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 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million) of investment in the first six months showed that almost 40 percent of projects in eight provinces had violations in approval procedure concerning pollution control, Zhou said.

"Monitoring new projects for pollution control and preventing approval frauds will be the priority of environmental officials in the second half of this year," he said.

Official figures revealed that investment in coal mining and processing rose 45.7 percent in the first six months.

As projects have expanded rapidly, the construction of facilities to reduce emissions have lagged far behind, Zhou said, noting that almost half of the new coal processing projects this year had failed to set up desulphurization equipment.

China discharged 25.49 million tons of sulphur dioxide in 2005, making it the world's top emitter. Nearly 85 percent was industrial emission, coming mainly from a large number of coal-burning projects.

The country has promised a ten percent reduction in total sulphur dioxide emissions by 2010.

Zhou said government officials should work harder to meet the two percent reduction goal, otherwise pollution would worsen and render environmental protection measures in the future less effective.

"The responsibility of curtailing pollutant emission rests upon the shoulders of the local governments," Zhou said, adding that the government will ensure that officials who ignore environmental protection will "pay the price".

Zhou said the government is planning to release a list of figures on pollutants discharged in the 17 provinces in the first half of the year to let the public know which has the largest emissions.

Officials in 16 provincial governments and managers in six major power companies have signed responsibility pledges with the central government to reduce pollutant discharge.

"For governments that fail to fulfil the pledge, approval will be suspended for new projects that might increase pollutant emission," Zhou said, adding that his administration will sign more pledges with local governments in the near future.