China spends big on environment protection

BEIJING - More than 920 billion yuan ($150 billion) has been channeled to support the renovation of land, air pollution control and clean water projects since last year, China's top planner said on Friday.

Energy conservation and environmental protection projects benefit China's economic restructuring, said Zhang Yong, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a national meeting.

He said that the targets for energy conservation and emission reduction were the government's top priorities this year and environmental protection projects will be expedited.

The central government plans to reduce energy intensity (units of energy per unit of GDP) by 3.1 percent in 2015.