China Environmental Law

Here’s a bit of good news from Shanghai’s environmental authorities:

Despite its rapid population and economic growth, Shanghai’s environment has been improving steadily in recent years, the [environmental protection] bureau said yesterday in a statement.

Last year, almost 90 percent of days were reported as having “good” air quality, the highest number since monitoring began more than 10 years ago, it said.

Green coverage has risen to 38 percent, and as of last year, the amount of green space per capita was up to 12.5 sq m, the bureau said.

The city government also remains committed to reducing levels of sulfur dioxide in the air and pollution in the city’s waterways, the statement said.

In 2000, the Shanghai government launched a campaign to improve its environment in a bid to ensure a green Expo in 2010. Since then, it has spent almost 180 billion yuan (US$26 billion) on green projects, Zhang said.

Also speaking at yesterday’s press briefing, Huang Yun, head of the bureau’s policy division, said over the past two years, more than 1,200 companies have been punished for violations of environmental regulations. They were each fined up to 200,000 yuan.

It’s true, of course, that Shanghai’s geography helps to disperse air pollution in a way that Beijing’s, for instance, does not, that it is one of the richest areas in China, and that it only has a small territory to police, but having lived here for almost three years, I can attest that things have gotten better. They are not perfect, but we are talking LA in the 70’s, not Pittsburgh in the 20’s. I saw a comment on another site recently where someone was “reporting” on a recent trip to Shanghai where the skies were black, everyone was coughing, and there was not a bit of greenery to be seen. That is fiction.

The basic thrust of the article was that Shanghai was going to turn its attention to the environment in its suburban and rural areas:

Zhang Quan, director of the Shanghai environmental protection bureau, said at a press briefing, that now is the time to shift the focus from urban areas and tackle environmental problems in the suburbs and the countryside, as more and more factories move their production bases there.

The restructuring is also putting a strain on the rural infrastructure, he added.

The measures might include the increased use of organic pesticides, limiting the use of chemical fertilizers, and accelerating the development of the areas’ infrastructure, including their sewerage systems, Zhang said.

“There are more than 2 million people living in rural villages in Shanghai, where it is very difficult to promote environmental protection measures,” he said.

“But the city has the funds and all other necessary resources to tackle the problem.”

I know it’s a little hard for Americans to comprehend 2 million people living in “rural” villages in a space the size of Shanghai, but the important point here is there was no defeatism expressed by the authorities-it is stated in no uncertain terms that the environmental issues in these areas will be resolved.

I do not doubt the sincerity of the Shanghai authorities to make the city a better place to live. They aren’t environmental zealots, but they realize that Shanghai can not achieve its international ambitions if it dos not provide a livable environment.

I have commented about the return of birds to the city before. As the weather has warmed up over the past month, we have slept with the windows open. At 4:30AM the sound of birds, lots of very noisy birds, wakes us up every morning on the 10^th floor. The sound of the subway construction crews woke us up last year; they’re still at it this year, but they now compete with the birds, and the birds get up earlier. That’s progress: hundreds of miles of new public transportation and birds to boot.