While the government still struggles to be transparent when environmental disasters strike, China is increasingly worried about the effects of decades of rapid economic expansion, said leading climate change expert Crispin Tickell.

"There is quite a substantial change going on in the Chinese attitude," Tickell told AFP at a media and environment conference here.

A former United Nations ambassador, Tickell has advised British prime ministers on environmental issues and is a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Formed by the Chinese government in 1992 and including unpaid international experts who volunteer their expertise, it has direct access to Chinas leadership to advise on environmental issues.

Tickell said a council meeting at the end of November with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao indicated a change in attitude towards climate change as well as other environmental problems.

"We received from the Chinese prime minister a strong affirmation that he fully supported the Kyoto protocol," said Tickell, referring to the global convention to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

"They talk all the time about the balance between economic progress and conservation and care of the environment," he said.

"Somehow these two elements have to be balanced. For the moment they're not being balanced, but they all accept the fact that they need to balance it."

Asian Development Bank (ADB) environment advisor in China, Niu Zhiming, said that in one sign of the shifting mood, the government has put forward a new agenda to improve the environment over the next five to 10 years.

"One (goal) is to establish a so-called new rural society. That is aimed at several hundred million rural people to improve their livelihood, improve their environment, living conditions and so on," he said.

"The other is the government is trying to promote a kind of energy-saving development and recycling economy," he added. "Both these items are now being seriously considered in the government agenda and programs."

Pelting along the development path, China, is projected to grow by 9.4 percent this year, maintaining its hectic rate of expansion from previous years.

But the growth of cities and industry has led to land, air and water pollution -- Beijing is infamous for its smog -- and experts say programs to stop the damage are slow-moving.

Outside of the cities, the ADB has said that about 40 percent of China's land has been devastated by wind and soil erosion, deforestation and pollution.

In the latest in a series of environmental disasters, the Chinese city of Harbin lost its water supply for five days after an explosion at a factory saw toxic chemicals spilled into the Songhua river which feeds the city.

The spill was initially covered up by local authorities, and environmental minister Xie Zhenhua was sacked over his handling of the case.

"At present, the blind pursuit of development in some localities is placing huge pressures on protecting the environment. The situation is extremely serious," Chinas State Environmental Protection Administration vice head Wang Yuqing said at the time.

Tickell said the reaction to the recent incidents indicated the government was now taking the problems seriously and that a deeply ingrained culture of denial was now beginning to shift.

"They told a lot of lies in the beginning of course, they can't bring themselves to tell the truth the first time," he said.

"(But) I was quite struck by the fact that after these disasters, the prime minister himself went up to each place to see, and they've been much more transparent than they usually are."

One of Beijing's challenges is trying to balance economic development, especially in deeply impoverished rural areas, with protecting the environment.

"The development of the rural society is huge work and you have to find ways to improve the rural economy and improve the environment of the rural societies," said Niu.

"Economic development is very critical for environmental protection or improvement. It's impossible to solve environmental problems without sufficient money."

One area of change could be China's role as a growing producer of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Friends of the Earth says the country is expected overtake the US as the worlds biggest carbon emitter by 2025.

The group noted recently that China this year passed a renewable energy law to increase production of energy from sustainable sources such as wind and solar power, and has called on Beijing to continue its efforts.

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