The biggest industrial polluters in China have been ordered to halt all new projects in an effort to force them to take immediate action to meet environmental standards. The companies include four of China’s six biggest energy groups, with strong links to some of the most powerful Communist Party leaders.

The order follows China’s failure to meet its targets for saving energy and controlling pollution for last year, a failure that the Government has admitted.

Energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product rose by 0.8 per cent in the first half of last year.

China’s environmental record has been severely criticised by signatories of the Kyoto Protocol on emissions. The country is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States.

Now China’s environmental watchdog has launched an unprecedented crackdown.

In addition to imposing strict controls on the power industry, the State Environmental Protection Agency has suspended approval for all new projects in four industrial cities.

The four hit are Tangshan in the northern Hebei province, Luliang in the coal-rich Shanxi province, Liupanshui in the impoverished southern Guizhou and Laiwu in the northern Shandong province.

The agency accused the cities of causing serious pollution and said that they had approved projects that violated environmental laws.

Pan Yue, the agency’s deputy head, has become one of the most outspoken members of China’s traditionally secretive government.

He said that he remained committed to enforcing measures that would improve the country’s environmental record, despite the pressure being brought to bear to curtail the powers of his agency.

Mr Pan said: “We have moved step by step, but it’s difficult. Nevertheless we are determined. And as for my own personal gains and losses, I gave up thinking about that a long time ago.”

Mr Pan singled out Tangshan — near Beijing — for building more than 70 steel plants of which 80 per cent lacked mandatory environmental assessments.

He pulled no punches in criticising city leaders. “Some local authorities and industries have defied the Government’s macro-regulation policy and pursued their own interests by blindly and illegally developing high-energy-use and high-pollution sectors,” he said.

After years of promoting economic growth at any cost, Beijing is still struggling to change the attitudes of local officials despite a range of new policies that tie the career prospects of civil servants to their energy- saving achievements. Experts said China needed to move away from its traditional communist-style top-down management approach since these results showed officials would not respond to edicts.

Local governments, however, see little incentive to fall into line with Beijing’s goal of what it calls a “green GDP” since officials are usually appraised on the economic performance of the regions for which they are responsible.

And it was far from clear that Mr Pan would succeed in the administration’s third attempt in as many years to exercise some authority over powerful regional governments withe powerful incentives to ignore the rules.

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