Enhanced Precision

Revisions to the environmental protection law will allow greater public participation in environmental affairs By Yuan Yuan

Enhanced Precision

Revisions to the environmental protection law will allow greater public participation in environmental affairs By Yuan Yuan

Pan Shiyi, a real estate magnate in Beijing, appeared on an online talk show—Friend—with Bei Zhicheng, a software businessman, on September 5. This time, their topic had nothing to do with their businesses, but a tiny unit of measurement, best known by its abbreviation: PM 2.5.

The term refers to airborne particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Such pollutants are small enough to penetrate lung tissue, posing far greater health risks than comparatively larger micro-particles of dust, dirt, soot, smoke and liquid droplets.

Pan has been keeping an eye on PM 2.5 data in Beijing for one year. “I came across this issue in August 2011 and learned of its harm on environment and our health,” Pan said.

Air is of good quality when the PM 2.5 measurement is below 70 micrograms per cubic meter. But the PM 2.5 concentration in Beijing has remained worse. From August 29 to 30, the reading topped 280 micrograms per cubic meter at its peak in the city, according to the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center.

Compared with Pan, Bei has been studying this issue for a much longer time. “I have had chronic sinus problems since high school, so I am very sensitive to dirty air,” Bei said.“Beijing’s air quality is getting worse every year and I have to install air purifiers in the apartment to deal with it.”

According to statistics acquired by Bei, since the middle of the 1990s, the number of Beijing residents suffering from lung cancer increased threefold. “We have to do something to stop the situation from worsening,”Bei said.

In China, air quality monitors used to measure only particulate matter less than 10 micrometers (PM 10), a considerably lower standard of precision. Particles within this range of measurement can be four times the size of PM 2.5 particles, and are not considered to be a form of environmental pollution that poses significant risks to human health.

In late 2011, the Ministry of Environmental Protection started to publish PM 2.5 data for 33 cities. By the end of 2012, the number will increase to 74.

The new national standards preliminarily passed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection last December expanded air quality readings to include PM 2.5 and tightened rules for some already monitored pollutants, such as PM 10 and nitrogen oxides.

Outdated law

In recent years, there have been many cases of people showing concerns for environmental problems across China.

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On June 23, residents in Qidong, east China’s Jiangsu Province, protested an industrial waste pipeline project. Hours after the demonstration, the local government decided to cancel the project.

It is the latest in a string of protests sparked by fears of environmental degradation. Data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection show the number of mass demonstrations related to environmental concerns has increased at an annual rate of 30 percent.

With increasing numbers of protests against controversial industrial projects in China, members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, agreed that a draft amendment to the Environmental Protection Law should address rising public discontent at their bimonthly session last month.

“Those protests, spurred by fears of environmental degradation, have stirred nationwide discontent and stoked calls for expanding citizens’ rights and sufficiently consulting with local residents when assessing environmental impacts of proposed industrial projects,” said Xie Kechang, a lawmaker and deputy to the NPC.

Xie revealed that in the first half of this year, 192 cities on the Chinese mainland had acid rain, and PM 2.5 levels increased sharply in major industrial regions.

The average PM 2.5 level in Beijing and its surrounding regions, the Yangtze River Delta and Shandong Peninsula in east China, the Pearl River Delta in the south and the Sichuan-Chongqing area in the southwest is about 80 micrograms per cubic meter, significantly higher than the average level in the United States.

According to Xie, as booming industries consume massive amounts of water, soil, minerals, labor and other resources, the public has less tolerance for, and more awareness of, hazardous pollution. “When the public has inadequate channels for expressing their concerns and protecting their interests, the existing laws will not foster environmental protection,” he said.

Wang said that China’s existing laws do have rules requiring local governments to conduct environmental assessments before approving construction projects as well as guidelines “encouraging individuals and institutions to participate in the assessment.”However, such rules lack weight due to the absence of mandatory terms for governments to disclose assessment information.

New rules

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The NPC Standing Committee on August 27 started its first reading of a draft amendment to the Environmental Protection Law.

The draft stresses the government’s role in environmental protection by adding a clause that calls for governments and environmental protection departments to release information concerning environmental quality, pollutionrelated accidents and the collection and use of pollutant discharge fees to the public, as well as allowing the public to request related information.

Individuals and organizations have the right to request environmental information from the government and its environmental protection agency at or above the county level. Such claims should be responded to within a set time limit, according to the draft amendment.

Moreover, since the discrepancies among environmental data released by different governmental departments on an overlapping subject have caused some negative effects, a national system will be established to streamline environmental monitoring and evaluation practices and ensure the consistency of the data, it said.

The draft also forbids depositing solid waste, substances containing heavy metals and other detrimental substances on farmland. It calls for caps on the total amount of major pollutants discharged. Regions that exceed pollutant discharge limits or fail to meet environmental standards will face suspensions of current development projects that could cause more pollution. Furthermore, the draft grants fiscal support for environmental management and drinking water protection in rural areas. The control system for capping discharges has already been included in the laws on the prevention and control of water contamination and air pollution, respectively.

“The draft highlights the government’s responsibility and liability in environmental protection as well as the improvement of environmental management regulations, the improvement of the country’s environmental quality and the enterprises’ responsibility in pollution prevention and control,” Wang said.

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a member of the NPC Standing Committee, said that the government’s releasing of environmental information in line with the law will ensure people’s rights to know and choose.

“If people know the place they live in has serious environmental pollution, they at least have an option to move,” said Rita Fan, former President of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region.

Wu Xiaoling, a member of the NPC Standing Committee and former Vice Governor of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, proposed that all government projects should not be approved before environmental assessments are carried out.

Wu also proposed that the amendment should adopt a current banking practice that sets environmental assessment as one of the premises for commercial banks to consider lending to enterprises or local governments.

As for enterprises, the draft requires them to cooperate with local environmental protection departments to carry out on-site investigations, such as providing accurate statistics as well as the operation and maintenance of cleaning equipment.

Cao Mingde, an environmental law professor at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said that the proposed obligation for companies is meant to plug existing loopholes in the enforcement of environmental protection laws, as enterprises often dodge government inspections by claiming that they could expose business secrets, and some discharge pollutants during nights or weekends.

“A detailed definition of rights and obligations of governments and companies can improve law enforcement,” Cao said.