By Jane Zhou on Monday, 28 April 2014 in Chemical News

On April 24^th, the revised Environmental Protection Law of China was approved at the eighth meeting of the Twelfth Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), and promulgated as Presidential Order No.9 signed by President Xi Jinping, due to take effect from January 1^st, 2015.

It is the first time in 25 years that China has revised its top legislation on environmental protection. The revision has gone through 2 open consultations and 4 readings which have taken 3 years to complete. The changes made to the Law are so significant that the revised edition can be generally regarded as a complete revision. Major breakthroughs can be seen in the following aspects:

• Clarity of government responsibility;
• Increased punishment of illegal pollution discharge and other environmental violations
• Increased information disclosure by government and encouragement of social coordination.

The reason the revised Law is called “the toughest” is due to the inclusion of a series of severe penalties, including:

• Administrative detention, closure of enterprise and seizure of the operational facilities and machinery
• In the case where an order of rectification is given but not responded to, daily fines will be imposed without any cap on total.
• Officials neglecting their duty will be demoted or dismissed to assume responsibility

Under the revised Law the licensing system will be enhanced to control the total amount of waste discharge throughout China. Regulatory enforcement will be increased to better protect important ecological zones, sensitive ecological niches and vulnerable areas, based on investigation and assessment results. 

With regard to public events on environmental pollution (e.g. smog), Article 47 of the revised Law puts forward more requirements on the monitoring and warning system. Relevant social organizations which have registered to the Civil Administrations at city level or above can initiate public welfare litigation on environmental issues.

 

In addition, the revised Law aims to promote an agenda to increase public adoption of a low-carbon lifestyle and increase individual environmental protection duties. June 5^th has also been designated as Environment Day.