China's environmental protection industry is expected to embrace development opportunities as the country strives to boost economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic while promoting harmony between humanity and nature, industry experts said.

The opportunities follow a decade of ups and downs in the sector, according to Li Qilin, head of China Environmental Chamber of Commerce.

The 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period was a golden time for the development of the industry, as it saw the central government adopt a host of key documents that were favorable for the industry's fast growth, including action plans for air and water pollution control, he said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The action plan for air pollution control, for example, vowed intensified efforts to promote energy conservation and environmental protection industries.

The country would foster a batch of companies with international competitiveness in the industries, the document said, with preferential policies introduced to encourage investment from foreign companies.

"In this period, the environmental sector expanded consistently with high-speed growth," said Li, also president of Beijing SPC Environment Protection Tech.

In contrast, Li referred to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period as a time of shocks for the industry.

In 2017, public-private partnership fever in China, which once greatly benefited the environmental sector, started to cool down, he said. The government's deleveraging efforts at the microeconomic level in the following year worsened the situation for the industry.

These factors increased the cost for environmental companies to raise money, shrinking their profit margins, he said. The market values of some listed companies even shrank to only 20 to 30 percent of their peaks.

Like many other industries, the environmental sector was not immune from the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past three years, he said, though some companies had benefited from their businesses being related to epidemic control, such as those involved in the disposal of medical waste.

Li highlighted some emerging opportunities for the environmental sector.

Responsible environmental governance remains a priority in the government's endeavor to promote high-quality socioeconomic development, he said. Since the beginning of the year, there have been investment booms in many regions across the country as local governments strive to promote economic recovery.

"A large batch of major projects has started to be implemented. As an important contributor to new and green infrastructure, the environmental industry will surely benefit," he said. "This is an opportunity for the sector to expand once again."

He said the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October noted that China will promote efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development and pursue economic growth.

Enterprises in the environmental industry will be encouraged by the implementation of the congress' spirit, he said. The sector will be increasingly engaged in pollution control and carbon emissions reduction in more industrial production processes.

There are still huge potentials to tap in industrial pollution control and environmental governance in rural China, he stressed.

Jin Duo, president of Grandblue Environment, also believed there were many emerging opportunities for the environmental sector as local governments endeavor to drive economic recovery by increasing investment.

"As we have seen since the beginning of the year, many local governments are preparing for a large number of environmental governance projects, and we've already been consulted many times," she said.