China Environmental Law

Nothing about climate change or even the environment made it into Xinhua’s “Highlights of Premier Wen’s gov’t work report” to the opening session of the National People’s Conference (NPC) noted that Wen vowed that China would “continue its drive of energy saving, emissions reduction, ecosystems preservation, and environment protection in 2009.”

We will implement energy-conserving measures for power generators, boilers, automobiles, air-conditioners and lighting products,” said Wen, adding that the government will strictly enforce the monitoring system for energy conservation and emissions reduction.

I can see why that does not qualify as a “highlight.”

In the run up to the NPC’s annual meeting a group of “liberal Communist Party elders” wrote to President Hu Jintao and the rest of the party leadership expressing thier concern that the “open-ended mandate” of the China’s stimulus package “would set off a binge of uncontrolled spending by regional and local interests, leading to waste, corruption and greater environmental degradation.”

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the environment in China is taking a back seat to efforts to keep the economy afloat.