City Facilitates Clean ProductionTaiyuan, the first pilot city designated by the United Nations to experiment in the operation of clean production, has been speeding up efforts to ease pressure on the environment.The city has so far invested a total of 1.5 billion yuan in 15 clean production projects. About 20 percent of the local pillar enterprises are engaged in promoting clean production. Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, is one of China's most important energy and chemical industrial bases. Official reports show that the city is one of the world's most polluted cities. Last year, the city focused on decreasing air and water pollution, reducing the annual discharges into the air and water by ten percent and nine percent, respectively, compared with the previous year. By 2010, the city will have launched five projects, including the removal of 26 enterprises from the downtown area, the piloting of 10 percent of local major companies in realizing clean production, and the setting-up of seven clean-fuel only areas. UNESCO launched the clean production campaign in the 1990s, aiming at improving the efficiency of energy consumption, reducing pollution and simultaneously monitoring the process of industrial production. Clean production has already been adopted in more than 200 enterprises throughout the country, resulting in the annual reduction of sewage discharges by 40 percent and the reduction of exhaust gases by 800 million cubic meters, generating a total 500 million yuan in profits. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |