China to crack down on investments that add pollution

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's environment ministry vowed on Friday to launch a two-year clampdown on investment projects that flout environmental rules, throwing its weight behind a campaign to curb inefficient and polluting projects.

The pledge by the Ministry of Environmental Protection signals a growing seriousness by Beijing to ensure that a recent burst in lending and investment does not result in the construction of additional inefficient, polluting production capacity, particularly in sectors already flagged as being over-invested.

It dovetails with efforts by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to guide money away from sectors facing overcapacity problems, including steel, cement, glass, coal chemicals, polysilicon and wind power equipment.

"Some local governments have mistakenly understood maintaining growth as promoting investment, which leads to lax implementation of environmental policies and insufficient environmental supervision," the ministry said in a statement issued ahead of a news conference.

"(We) plan to use two years to crack down on prominent environmental problems in the fields of engineering and construction," it said.

So far this year, the ministry has rejected 47 proposed industrial projects worth 191 billion yuan ($28 billion) on environmental grounds, 70 percent of them in the steel, petrochemical, non-ferrous metals and power generation sectors, it said.

It added that it would block approval of inefficient new factories in parts of the country that have not met their targets for reducing emissions.

The Ministry of Land and Resources said in the statement that it would follow national industrial policies in approving land use for industrial projects, adding its voice to the NDRC's plan to curb wasteful investments.

(Reporting by Zhou Xin and Jason Subler; Editing by Ken Wills)