China's top environmental watchdog has pledged to vigorously promote the development of the environmental protection industry as it strives to ensure continuous environmental improvement and help boost the economy.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment also stressed that it will not relent in environmental protection work amid downward economic pressure, vowing to strictly curb haphazard development of smokestack industries and resolutely crack down on environmental violations.

Despite marked progress last year, the country's environmental protection work is confronted with a series of challenges caused by a "grim" and "complicated" economic situation, Ecology and Environment Minister Huang Runqiu told the ministry's annual work conference on Jan 7. The full text of his address was made public over the weekend.

Huang said last year was the second straight year to witness simultaneous declines in the average density of PM2.5 particulate matter and ozone across the country. The average PM2.5 concentration, for example, decreased by 9.1 percent year-on-year to 30 micrograms per cubic meter.

Improvement was also seen in surface water quality, with the proportion of water suitable for drinking continuing to rise and that rated heavily polluted going down, Huang said.

He warned, however, that pressure on the country's environmental protection work had built up in the second half of last year due to increasing economic difficulties.

"Some regions have attached less importance to environmental protection work, and their willingness to enhance the work has declined," Huang said, adding there is an impulse to introduce projects with high energy consumption and emissions in some areas.

The number of environmental violations, including the abnormal operation of environmental facilities and illegal discharging of pollutants, has increased, he added.

Huang said the country cracked down unswervingly on environmental violations last year.

Joining hands with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security, he said his ministry rolled out campaigns dedicated to violations related to hazardous waste and fraud in automatic environmental monitoring.

A total of 7,020 cases were unearthed in the campaigns and roughly 900 million yuan ($142 million) in penalties was meted out, Huang said.
He said promoting green, low-carbon development is one of the ministry's priorities this year.

Aside from giving full play to the role of environmental work in promoting the "comprehensive green transition of economic and social development", the ministry will take a series of measures to help maintain stable economic performance.

It will draft a dedicated regulation to enhance the management of environmental impact assessments for smokestack industries, Huang said.

Haphazard development of such industries will be a key focus of the central environmental inspection, and inspectors will pay close attention to lax examination and approval, weak supervision and slack law enforcement.

Staffed by civil servants from the ministry and led by ministerial-level officials, teams with the inspection report to a central group headed by Vice-Premier Han Zheng.

"The ministry will make environmental protection investment play its role in driving economic development by comprehensively promoting clean production and proactively cultivating environmental protection industries to boost their development," Huang said.

Emphasizing the importance of fully and faithfully implementing the new development philosophy on all fronts, Sun Jinlong, the ministry's Party chief, called for the integration of environmental protection work in China's overall development.

He also called for proactive innovations in the ministry's governance approach as it "endeavors to synergize economic development and environmental protection".