China's environmental protection industry generated 457.21 billion yuan (57 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue and 39.39 billion yuan (4.9 billion U.S. dollars) in profits in 2004, according to a government white paper issued Monday.

The white paper titled "Environmental Protection in China (1996-2005)" says China actively promotes the industrialization of environmental protection.

By the end of 2004, China had 11,623 enterprises, each with an annual sales income of more than 2 million yuan (250,000 U.S. dollars), engaged in environmental protection, employing a total of 1.595 million workers, says the white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council.

During China's Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), the State organized and conducted the national key "water pollution control technology and treatment project," and carried out the research and development of such pilot programs as motor vehicle emission purification, desulphurization of gas discharged by coal-fueled boilers, disposal of solid wastes, clean production of key sectors and other key technologies.

A green GDP accounting framework has roughly taken shape.

The government has carried out research on comprehensive ecological system assessment, ecological functional zoning, and the recovery and reconstruction of the frail ecological zones in the western part of the country, thus shaping up a variety of technological patterns for treatment and a mechanism for large-scale demonstration and popularization in those zones.

The country has also completed its survey of alien invasive species, and set up a biodiversity database.

China has formulated the State Environment and Health Action Plan, and conducted surveys on environment and health in key areas, the paper says.

The country has actively conducted research on global environmental changes, and worked out the State Assessment Report on Climate Changes, which provides a scientific basis for the State to formulate policies to cope with global environmental changes and participate in the negotiation on relevant international conventions.

The white paper points out that after years of practice, China has formed an industrial system of environmental protection with a basically complete category and certain economic scale.

Source: Xinhua