Efforts to boost domestic consumption during the economic downturn will also provide development opportunities for the environmental protection industry, a senior official said yesterday.

Ling Jiang, director of the pollution prevention department at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said during an online interview at Gov.cn that investment in environmental protection projects could speed up as the government moves to promote infrastructure construction.

"As industries that consume large amounts of energy and generate lots of pollution are replaced, there is a good opportunity for governments to promote their industrial restructuring and upgrading policies," he said.