China is to
invest around 34 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion) to phase out
persistent organic pollutants (POPs) within 10 years, a Chinese
environmental official said on Wednesday.
"This is only a preliminary calculation and does not include the
funds needed to treat the places contaminated by POPs," said Zhuang
Guotai, deputy director of the office for the Stockholm Convention
Implementation under the State Environmental Protection
Administration.
He said that the funds needed to treat the polluted areas "could
be huge" and difficult to estimate as there was still insufficient
information about the levels of contamination and how serious it
was. ?
China has drafted a plan to phase out the world's most toxic
chemicals as required by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants, he said.
According to the plan China will stop the production and use of
chlordane, mirex and DDT used in anti-dirt paint by 2010 and be
safely disposing of electric appliances containing POPs by 2015.
China will also stop the production and use of POPs in pesticides
by 5015.
The plan would be submitted to the State Council for approval in
July, he said.
Under the Stockholm Convention, China will have to submit its
national implementation plan to the convention's secretariat by
November 11. China signed the Stockholm Convention in May 2001 and
it came into effect in China in November 2004.
Funding to control POPs will come from the central government,
local governments and domestic companies as well as international
organizations and foreign governments.
The Italian government has pledged to provide US$7 million in
assistance which is the biggest sum pledged by a foreign government
so far.
The fifth meeting to discuss China's implementation of the
Stockholm Convention was held on Wednesday with the attendance of
more than 100 government officials and representatives from China,
UN organizations and Italy, Germany, Norway, Japan and Finland.
"The Stockholm Convention can be successful only if it succeeds
in China as the country is very influential in combating POPs,"
said Zoltan Csizer, a senior adviser with the UN Industrial
Development Organization at the meeting.
Of all the pollutants released into the environment every year
POPs are among the most dangerous. They are linked to cancer,
allergies hypersensitivity and can damage the central and
peripheral nervous systems which has the potential to lead to
reproductive disorders and disruption of the immune system.
According to the United Nations Environment Program everyone in
the world carries traces of POPs in their bodies. The POPs are
stable compounds which can remain in the body for years or even
decades before being broken down.
(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2006)