Chinese environment minister says slowing economy won't stop anti-pollution efforts

China will not return to its era of pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment despite its slowing economy, the country's environment minister said today.

Chen Jining said China would continue to restructure its economy away from heavily polluting companies to create more room for "good companies" to develop and focus on technological innovation, for example.

Chen pointed, however, to the need to rein in local governments, some of whom are still leery of enforcing environmental laws in favour of boosting economic growth in their areas.

"We need to hold the local governments accountable," said Chen. "Only if we hold them accountable for environmental responsibilities will the enterprises be more law-abiding."

Last year, China's economic growth slowed to a 25-year low of 6.9%. This year, authorities have set a growth target of 6.5 to 7%.

For decades, China pursued economic growth with little care of the damage to the country's environment. In recent years, the Chinese government has changed tack as it tries to move away from an economy dependent on heavy industry to a more sustainable one based on domestic consumption and services.

At the same time, China's increasingly wealthy citizens have become more concerned with the consequences of environmental pollution.

"What is development? We used to equate it with GDP and production," said Chen. "We have come to believe that nature is valuable and priceless. We have abandoned the former idea of contrasting development with environmental protection but rather believe the two elements can be unified and balanced."

Today, China is aiming to transform its economic development model and pursue "economic quality, but also environmental quality," Chen told a news conference during an annual meeting of the country's legislature.

"Only when those polluters bow out of the market will it be possible to set aside some development space for good companies to focus on innovation and improving product quality, and to avoid the phenomenon of 'bad money driving out good' in our development," said Chen.

China's slowing growth, attempts to refocus its economy on services and long-term efforts to get rid of overcapacity in industries including coal and steel are helping to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.

But local governments' perennial push for economic growth in their cities and provinces, and state companies' tendency to spend large, can lead to projects that are at odds with central policymakers' push to clean up the area, according to environmentalists.