China Drafts Laws to Curb Pollution
Date: 27-Aug-07
Country: CHINA
Author: Lindsay Beck
The issue has taken on greater urgency as Beijing tries to
clean up its notoriously filthy air before hosting the 2008
Olympics next August.
The draft law on a "circular economy" -- China's watchword
for sustainability -- stipulates that governments at all levels
should control energy use and emissions, strengthen management
of resource-intensive companies and divert capital into
environmentally-friendly industries.
"China has been facing serious environmental and resources
problems during the economic development since the 1980s, which
were mainly caused by the low resources efficiency", the
official Xinhua news agency quoted lawmaker Feng Zhijun as
saying.
China's average energy consumption per unit product for
industries such as steel, electric power and cement was 20
percent higher than that of "the advanced international level",
he said.
In its rapid development into the world's fourth-largest
economy, China has become the world's top emitter of acid-rain
causing sulphur dioxide. Many analysts expect it to overtake the
United States this year as the biggest greenhouse gas emitter.
The government under President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen
Jiabao has strengthened environmental legislation but laws and
regulations often go unenforced at the local level, where
officials typically prioritise economic growth over
environmental protection.
Lawmakers were also deliberating a draft amendment to the
Water Pollution Prevention and Control Act, intended to mete out
harsher punishments to enterprises and officials who failed to
implement controls, Xinhua said.
The draft stipulates that offenders will be fined 100,000
yuan (US$13,000) to 1 million yuan if factories discharge into
water more than a set level of pollutants.
Environmental protection officials who fail to set up a
water pollution emergency response scheme, or delay reporting
and hide water pollution accidents would face administrative
punishment and possible criminal charges.
An official from the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) said China was also trying to strengthen
and broaden local governments' ability to restrict approvals for
new projects that would pollute, and to standardise the national
approvals, Xinhua said.
China has promised to cut emissions of major pollutants by
10 percent between 2006 and 2010, but last year failed to meet
the annual goal.