"And the focus should be designing an accountability system to change the local governments' mindset of blindly speeding up investment," Lin told China Daily.

Vice-Minister Xie Zhenhua said some local governments are investing heavily in resource-intensive sectors ignoring the central government's directive to save energy and reduce emissions.

Though the national economy has slowed down, China's investment in fixed assets in the first half of this year such as roads and factories reached 26.3 percent, up 0.4 percentage point year-on-year.

Since 2003, mainly due to local governments' investment frenzy, the growth rate has remained high despite the central government's determination to slow it down. This momentum is likely to continue in the second half of this year as the earthquake and the blizzards have triggered demand for more construction.

"We should keep the necessary, environment-friendly and energy-efficient projects going," said Lin.

An official inspection last year discovered that only 53 percent of projects under construction are actually keeping their energy-saving promises. Nearly all of them had pledged at the design stage that they would meet national standards on energy saving.

This disregard for energy conservation requirements by property developers poses a threat to meeting the overall green goal, in which the construction sector is expected to contribute almost 30 percent of total energy savings.

"The findings are alarming," said Song Chunhua, chairman of the China Real Estate Association. "More tough measures are needed to achieve the national goal."

(China Daily August 7, 2008)