Top priority will be given to the development of solar, wind, tidal, marsh gas and other clean and recycled energies in south China's Guangdong Province in the years to come.
And the province will also start studying and developing hydrogen energy soon to meet the growing energy demand resulting from the region's rapid economic growth, a senior provincial environmental protection official, who preferred not to be named, said yesterday.
The move aims to further reduce pollution and help improve the environment of the Pearl River Delta region, said the official.
The Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Environmental Protection has mapped out a plan for the future development of the province's environmental protection industry, the official added.
According to the Environmental Protection Development Plan for the Pearl River Delta, more than 440 billion yuan (US$53.5 billion) investment will be needed to protect the province's environment between 2005 and 2010.
Investment in environmental protection will reach 1,000 billion yuan (US$120 billion) from 2005 to 2020.
The plan was passed by the provincial government early this week and is expected to become a provincial regulation later this year when it is expected to be approved by the Provincial People's Congress.
All the nine cities in the prosperous Pearl River Delta region will be built into tourist metropolises in three years, while the whole Pearl River Delta will be built into a model region in environmental protection in China by 2010, according to the plan.
To this end, the first phase construction of the province's LNG (liquefied natural gas) project will be completed in 2006, meaning that imported natural gas will be supplied to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan through the gas pipeline network.
And the second phase of the LNG project that will transport gas to the cities of Zhaoqing, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhuhai will be completed in 2008.
The plan also encourages city governments throughout the province to increase investment in developing public buses and taxis using natural gas, trolley buses and other environmentally friendly modes of public transport.
According to the plan, motorcycles will gradually be banned in major cities throughout the delta.
Improving the quality of the water in major rivers running through the delta's big cities will account for 250 billion yuan (US$30 billion) of this environmental investment over the next six years.
All drinking water in urban areas will meet State sanitary requirements.
By 2010, more than 75 percent of daily urban domestic sewage will be treated before it is discharged when the urban daily sewage treatment capacity reaches 16.56 million tons.
And by 2020, more than 85 percent of the urban sewage will be disposed of and the daily sewage treatment capacity will reach 22.26 million tons.
In addition to more new sewage treatment plants, a total of nine medical waste treatment facilities, seven industrial solid waste disposal centers, and four treatment centers for dangerous refuse will be built in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Zhuhai and Foshan in the Pearl River Delta.
And the investment to clean the air, treat solid waste and protect the environment will amount to 70 billion yuan (US$8.5 billion), 80 billion yuan (US$9.7 billion) and 35 billion yuan (US$4.25 billion) respectively from 2005 to 2010.
(China Daily September 9, 2004)
