(June 8, 2009) China’s minister of environmental protection, Zhou Shengxian, has expressed concern that the country’s economic stimulus plan will have a negative impact on the environment. In an interview with China Daily, Zhou warned that he will push his 200-odd staff ministry into an all-out “warfare” to promote environmental and green initiatives and policies.

His remarks came after staff from the Ministry of Environmental Protection recently reported the 4-trillion yuan stimulus plan announced by the central government is ignoring the environmental impacts of some of the projects.

Of particular concern, said Zhou was increased pollution from industrial operations in the country’s central and western frontier regions. He also said a number of the national environmental protection policies are being relaxed and corporations are pulling back investment in pollution control.

According to China Daily, “from November to the end of February, the ministry of Environmental Protection rejected or suspended approval of 14 polluting and high energy-consuming projects with development budgets totaling 104 billion yuan.”

Zhou’s deputy Zhang Lijun has tried to ease fears that the stimulus plan would override environmental concerns, saying that only infrastructure and public welfare projects would be able to obtain fast-tracked environmental reviews. But whether the government will stick to its word on environmental protection remains to be seen.

So far, Zhang said, the environmental ministry has approved 365 stimulus-related projects, while only rejecting or delaying 29.

But the environmental drawbacks of an economic stimulus package are not only a Chinese matter. In the U.S., legislators considered exempting projects to be funded from the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) from complying with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), but in the end, called on agencies to ensure that it is “completed on an expeditious basis” using the “shortest existing applicable process.” Meanwhile, a grassroots group, Stimulus Watch, has sprung up to hold public officials to account on the way they spend the stimulus funds.

And Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice recently announced that the federal government will cut back on “unnecessary” environmental assessments for projects that the government believes there will be no environmental consequences. Many of the cut backs on environmental assessments will come on federally-funded projects such as roads and bridges. Canadian environmental groups have been criticalof Ottawa’s new rules.

Brady Yauch, June 8, 2009