The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) awarded national environmental prizes to 10 projects, selected from more than 160 candidates, on Friday.

"This is the first prize set up by the nation to mark achievements in building an environment-friendly society," SEPA Director Zhou Shengxian said at the award ceremony.

With a total investment of 108 billion (US$13.3 billion), the 10 "green" schemes are mainly key State or provincial projects.

They involve pipeline transportation, railway and expressway construction, hydropower and thermal power plants and real estate, SEPA officials said.

Among the winners were the West-East Gas Pipeline by PetroChina, the Ertan hydropower project on the Yalong River, and the first phase of the cleaning up of Suzhou River in Shanghai.

"These projects have set good examples," Zhou said.

Local governments at all levels should not invite investment by sacrificing the environmental interests of local people, he added.

The establishment of the award marks an important shift in environmental protection from treating the effects of pollution to prevention, said Zhou.

"The West-East Gas Pipeline project has not only avoided the destruction of environmentally sensitive and cultural sites, but has also introduced ecological repair programmes for the first time," said Zhou.

Statistics indicate that a total of 732 million yuan (US$90 million) was invested to protect soil erosion along the 4,000-kilometre long pipeline.

Environmental degradation is a pressing problem in many areas and includes water, air and soil pollution, as well as the threats poised by waste and noise in cities, experts warn.

One reason behind environmental problems is the backward economic development mode employed in the country, in which investment and consumption are more important than recycling and efficiency, they say.

China's environmental woes are steadily growing and costing the economy around US$200 billion each year, according to a newly published SEPA report.

(Source: China Daily)