Shanghai Increases Investment in Environmental ProtectionShanghai, China's largest commercial city, has invested 50.5 billion yuan (about 6 billion US dollars) in environmental protection over the past nine year, or 2.8 percent of the city's GDP, according to its vice-mayor Han Zheng.Han said at an international symposium on ecology, environment and sustainable development of the metropolis today that the environmental investment in 1998 and 1999 topped 10 billion yuan each year. Large environmental protection projects, including pollution control of water and urban air and promotion of clean and green resources, have been launched since the 1990's. Shanghai built green areas covering 2,850 hectares in the past nine years, or three times the total amount of green area built during the past four decades. And the per capita green area has increased from 1.02 sq.m. in 1990 to the current 4 sq.m. Enterprises causing serious pollution in the city have been renovated or shut down to control industrial pollution. According to Han, the city has made its first three-year environmental protection plan to clean water and urban air, decrease solid waste, and promote afforestation. |
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