China Environmental Law

Hats off to Zhou Shengxian, the Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)!  He has always been fairly outspoken and frankly critical of local implementation of national environmental laws and policies, but his comments today in an interview with China Daily reveal a new level of commitment to China’s environment, and a candor not often seen in China’s highest ranking officials. 

“It is a disgraceful lifestyle to drive a BMW but have only dirty water to drink,” said Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental protection.

Some would say its disgraceful to drive a BMW under any circumstances, but Zhou’s metaphor is striking.  What good are the fruits of economic progress if they have left the ground they sprang from polluted and useless?

Concerned about how the China’s stimulus plan was being implemented in the field MEP fact-finding teams were sent to 40 cities and “discovered defects” in the new infrastructure projects and factories being constructed with stimulus funds.  He noted the following areas of particular concern:

• environmental protection not being highlighted in the overall plan;
• new industrial operations causing additional environmental problems in China’s central and western frontier regions;
• national environmental protection policies being affected;
• environmental management by companies becoming more relaxed, and
• corporate investment in pollution control seeing a marked decline.

He criticized the “lack of respect for the environment as the country carries out its economic stimulus plan.”

Surely he’s not referring to China’s world-beating “green” stimulus effort we’ve been reading so much about lately.  No, I’m afraid there is only one stimulus package in China, and whatever its pretensions to greenness, at least in its execution phase its impact on the environment of China is apparently anything but beneficial.

To combat the disregard for the environment as the stimulus plan is being implemented, “Zhou announced he is leading his 200-odd staff into all-out warfare, including a publicity plan to promote green modernization and ensure environmental well-being for the country’s 1.3 billion people in a 30-trillion yuan economy.”  I fear a slaughter of the brave MEP forces on a scale unmatched since the well-known Crimean debacle during the Battle of Balaclava. 

I’m not sure the MEP itself is entirely blameless here, since it has Environmental Impact Assessment approval authority on many of the largest stimulus projects, and has instituted a “green channel” to speed approval of projects which purport to have little impact upon the environment.  Nevertheless, “Zhou pledged the ministry will use the most stringent measures to ensure the country’s green development, especially using its power in the approval and review of new projects.” 

Minister Zhou deserves credit for his outspokenness, and perhaps this indicates a growing assertiveness on the part of MEP now that it has full-ministerial rank.

His comments also point out the large gap between the aspirations of the national government (often enshrined in progressive sounding laws and policies) and their implementation in the field.  This brings us back to the climate change issue and demonstrates how critical it is that China’s good intentions be backed up with “measurable, reportable, and verifiable” commitments.