China Environmental Law

My last post focused on those Chinese cities blacklisted for poor environmental performance, but it also mentioned several cities where 90%+ of the population was “satisfied” with the local environmental protection efforts.  These cities belong on the gold star list.

They were concentrated in two provinces Shandong and Heilongjiang.  We’ll look at the Shandong cities today: Dongying (东营), Linyi (临沂), Rizhao (日照), and Yantai (烟台).  Here’s a map showing their locations:

View Larger Map

Dongying (东营)

It’s hard to find a lot of specifics on what Dongying has done to satisfy its citizens as to its environmental protection efforts.  It has clearly attempted to establish itself as an “ecological city,” but then so have many other cities in China, but perhaps not so early or so eloquently as Dongying

With people much more deeply understanding sustainable development, the problems about ecological environment are taken seriously by them. In the light of the fact that the ecological environment is flimsy and the soil resources are abundant, the city development goal of Dongying is put forward, which is to establish outstanding ecological city.

Dongying efforts to make itself more environmentally friendly began at least 4 years ago.  A 2004 article  noted that Dongying “is shifting from chasing mere growth to balancing eco-environmental construction with economic development.”  The then mayor (not sure if he’s still there) said: “Our goal is to turn Dongying into a modern economic centre of the Yellow River Delta area, as well as a pivotal ecological urban centre of the Pacific Rim by 2020.”

Dongying’s rating is especially surprising because it sits atop the country’s second largest oilfield, Shengli Oilfield.

Though dubbed one of the country’s major petroleum-related industrial cities, Dongying has received honourable environmental protection and city construction titles in recent years. The awards have covered areas such as water and soil safeguarding.

Despite its oil resources, Dongying is the site of a new 48 megawatt windfarm.

The 2004 mayor explained that the local government “will brand ecological culture into people’s minds.”  If nothing else, it appears its mind branding efforts have been successful.

Linyi (临沂)

Its even harder to find specifics on what makes Linyi so green, but fortunately we have Shanghai Scrap’s Adam Mintner who has toured and reported on Linyi China Electronic Recycling Center (go read the whole post and see the pictures).  As Adam noted in a comment on my previous post:  

Linyi’s been a laboratory for the development of recycling and solid waste methods for several years now. In a decade, when people think of “e-scrap” and “China,” they won’t be thinking of the environmental catastrophe in Guiyu, they’ll be thinking about the innovations and partnerships in Linyi.

Good luck Linyi.

Rizhao (日照)

There is no shortage of information on Rizhao’s environmental credentials.  As you would expect from a city named sunshine:

The city of Rizhao combines incentives and legislative tools to encourage the large-scale, efficient use of renewable energy, especially solar energy. 99% of Rizhao’s households use solar water heaters. In the suburbs and villages, more than 30 percent of households use solar water heaters, and over 6,000 households have solar cooking facilities. Almost all traffic lights, street lights and park illuminations are powered by photovoltaic solar cells.

Widespread use of solar energy has reduced the use of coal and helped to improve the environmental quality of Rizhao. The vision was to enhance environment thus helping the city’s social, economic, and cultural development in the long run. Solar energy is seen as a starting point to trigger this positive cycle. And after 15 years of promoting solar energy this has proven effective. In 2007 the city is attracting a rapidly increasing amount of foreign direct investment. According to city officials, environment is one of the key factors bringing these investors to Rizhao. 

Rizhao’s own promotional materials boast that in 2005 “Rizhao was awarded the title of ‘National Model City of Environmental Protection.’”

Yantai (烟台)

Yantai doesn’t appear to have a single strong suit like Rizhao’s solar energy; it just appears to be an all-around good place to live.  Here’s the German Chamber of Commerce on Yantai:

Yantai has a temperate climate with an average annual temperature of 11.8°C and humidity of 68% in YHDZ . It is nestled between the mountains and the sea with a coastline of 21.5 km. Forty-one percent of the district is covered in trees, plants and flowers. It has excellent air quality, is cool in summer and warm in winter. In this zone, there is an excellent living environment with well equipped cultural, sports and entertainment facilities. In 2005 Yantai was granted the “UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award”. If Yantai is such a city of this award, then YHDZ is the most representative. Yantai has been granted the following awards:

• The U.N. Best Living Environment Award (in 2005)
• National Excellent Tourism City
• National Garden City
• National Hygienic City
• International Vine and Wine City
• National Model City for Environmental Protection
• National Top 50 Cities in Terms of General Strength
• National Top 40 Cities in Terms of Investment Environment 

Need more references?  Well, Dan Harris from the China Law Blog says its one of his “favorite Chinese cities.” 

It has great buildings, great waterfront views, great weather, great beer and apples, and, what has always struck me as clean air. On top of that, our experience has been that its local government is very receptive and supportive of foreign business.

Dan is perplexed as to why Yantai hasn’t received more attention from foreign investors.  Let’s hope its high “satisfaction” numbers help spread the news.