China Environmental Law

Regular readers know that the performance of sub-national political officials is evaluated to a certain extent based how well they deliver on several environmental (SO₂ and COD discharge reductions) and energy efficiency targets.  Until yesterday, however, I did not know how much these criteria factored into the evaluation mix.  It turns out it is an astounding 60%, if the China Daily article, “Green axe hangs over local officials,” is to be believed.  Here are the key paragraphs:

About 60 percent provincial and regional government officials’ career success depends on their achievements in saving energy and protecting the environment, a top development official said Thursday.

The central government announced last year that local government officials’ promotions would depend not only on economic growth, but also on their environmental efforts. Which means they will not be promoted if they fail to achieve their green targets.

The “top-development official” who provided the evaluation percentage is not named, but Xie Zhenhua, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is quoted by name later in the article and this fact gives weight to the story.  Vice-Minister Xie is in charge of environmental affairs for the NDRC. You may recall that he was previously the Minister of SEPA, but took the fall for the Songhua River spill.  Several month later he was “rehabilitated” and given a powerful slot at the NDRC.

Mr. Xie noted that some progress had been made in achieving energy efficiency goals, but “the energy saving story is still ‘grim’, Xie said, even though the officials’ performances are yet to be assessed. They will be judged on a five-yearly basis.”

The article also notes that

Executives of leading State-owned enterprises (SOE), too, will be judged on the basis of their green performance, Xie said. “We have already included the top managers of the 154 enterprises directly under the central government in the assessment.”

I have to say I am shocked, but very encouraged by this development.  I have recently expressed the opinion that the national government was satisfied with perpetuating the notion of a stand off between an environmentally concerned top leadership and a recalcitrant horde of development-loving local cadres.  If this “60% green” criteria is applied in practice, I will have to reassess that opinion.  As noted above, we won’t know how well the green criteria are applied until after 2010 (when the 11^th Five-year Plan results are calculated), since the targets upon which performance is to be evaluated are expressed only in terms of 2010 results.  I am also aware that there is plenty of room for “fun with numbers” at the local level, but we have seen efforts recently to tighten up local reporting obligations.  For now: 环保, 加油！

What criteria make up the other 40% of cadres performance evaluation?

• economic growth
• implementation of the family planning program
• workplace safety rules