China Environmental Law

The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) completed the establishment of its regional supervision centers with the opening of the sixth center, the North China Supervision Center, on December 17, in, strangely, Beijing.  The centers, established over the course of the last several years are:

North China (Beijing)

Northeast China (Shenyang)

Northwest China (Xian)

East China (Nanjing)

South China (Guangzhou)

Southwest China (Chengdu)

The centers are to work in cooperation with Environmental Supervision Bureau within MEP to handle the following functions: 

• supervise the implementation of national environmental policies, laws, regulations, and standards in the region within its jurisdiction;
• undertake investigation of major environmental pollution and ecological damage cases;
• undertake the coordination and settlements of major environmental disputes in trans-provincial areas and river basins;
• participate in the supervision of emergency responses to and handling of major environmental accidents;
• undertake or be involved in the inspection of environmental law enforcement;
• supervise the implementation of the “three simultaneities” system of major pollutant sources and construction projects approved by the State;
• supervise environmental law enforcement in national-level nature reserves (scenic spots, and forest parks) and national key eco-function protection areas; and
• be responsible for the acceptance, coordination and settlement of visits and complaints regarding environmental pollution accidents and ecological damages cases in trans-boundary areas and river basins of the region within its jurisdiction.

At the opening ceremony for the North China regional center, MEP Vice Minister Zhang Lijun acknowledged  many of the challenges facing MEP and the regional centers in performing the function set forth in the first bulleted point above. 

“Central governmental standards on environmental protection are not being met as a result of local protectionism.”

At present, central government’s three key objectives are maintaining economic growth, adjusting structures, and enhancing people’s quality of life. However, according to the latest reports [latest reports? More accurately, "every report"], some local governments are following the principle of maintaining economic growth while neglecting the two other objectives.

“Failure to properly address the issue of environmental protection is a result of two factors. One is that some local governments have eased pollution controls in order to favor GDP growth. The other is that as an administrative authority, the Ministry of Environmental Protection lacked effective supervisory capacity over the relevant local departments.”

In addition to the above reasons, some insiders [and all outsiders] suggest that under the present system, officials of local environmental protection departments are appointed by local government, which means that the head of a local environmental protection bureau has no actual powers to enforce environmental management.

It has been found that pollution standards have already been exceeded in some areas, but that local governments have implemented policies to hinder environmental protection. For example, in some regions polluting enterprises are being protected by local government, and inspection is not possible without authorization from the Mayor.

According to Xiong Yaohui, director of the new North China Supervision Center, they have already inspected over 200 polluting enterprises in the six provinces under their jurisdiction and have established “that most of businesses inspected were involved in some activity or another that contravened regulations. He concluded that weak enforcement by some local environmental protection departments was encouraging certain polluting enterprises to illegally discharge contaminants into the environment with impunity.”

Thus, renewed effort is needed by the centers to “supervise[e] local government and local departments of environmental protection, to prevent administrative inaction, corruption or dereliction of duty in the process of environmental management.”

Another specific task assigned to the regional centers involves data verification.  As we have mentioned repeatedly at CELB, the 11th Five-Year Plan requires the reduction of the emission of major pollutants by 10 percent (over 2005 levels) by the end of 2010. “In some areas, the performance of local officials has already been linked with the achievement of this target.  A specific new function of the centers will be to prevent local departments from submitting false data, a core task assigned to the six regional environment supervision centers is to verify pollution emission reduction figures reported by local government.”

The regional centers’ promise of more effective supervision of local environmental authorities remains largely unfulfilled.  Two issues have hampered full realization of the regional office potential: 1) lack of staff (a perennial complaint when it comes to national environmental enforcement functions), and 2) unclear issues of authority vis-a-vis local environmental protection bureaus.  US EPA and the Asian Development Bank have been aiding MEP with the establishment of these regional centers, and there is a real hope that they will be able to become effective components of MEP’s governance and enforcement structure in the future.