Smog-plagued China is set to pass a new law that would give the central government more powers to shut polluting factories and punish officials, and even place protected regions off-limits to industrial development.
Reuters Newsagency quotes scholars with knowledge of the situation as saying long-awaited amendments to China’s 1989 Environmental Protection Law would be finalised later this year.
The laws will give the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) greater authority to take on polluters.
While some details of the fourth draft are still under discussion, it has been agreed that the principle of prioritising the environment above the economy will be enshrined in law, according to scholars who have been involved in the process.
Reuters reports the fourth draft is due to be completed within weeks.
“Upholding environmental protection as the fundamental principle is a huge change, and emphasises that the environment is a priority,” said Professor Cao Mingde, a lawyer at the China University of Political Science and Law, who was involved in the drafting process.
The first change to the legislation in 25 years will give legal backing to Beijing’s newly declared war on pollution.
It will formalise a pledge made last year to abandon a decades-old growth-at-all-costs economic model that has spoiled much of China’s water, skies and soil.
Professor Cao cautioned that some of the details of the measures could be removed as a result of bureaucratic wrangling.
The MEP has called for the law to spell out how new powers can be implemented in practice, but the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planning agency, prefers broader, more flexible principles.
“There is a usual practice when everyone is unable to come to a complete agreement, we first put an idea into the law and then draw up detailed administrative rules later,” Professor Cao said.
Local authorities’ dependence on the taxes and employment provided by polluting industries is reflected by the priorities set out in China’s growth-focused legal code, said Professor Wang Canfa, an environment law expert who runs the Centre for Pollution Victims in China and also took part in the drafting stage.
Reuters reports the environment ministry did not respond to a faxed request for comment on its role in the drafting process and the specific content of the new amendments.
In the absence of legally enshrined powers, the environment ministry has often made do with one-off national inspection campaigns to name and shame offenders.
It has also used ad-hoc arrangements with local courts and police authorities to make sure punishments are imposed and repeat offenders’ shut down.
It has also stretched existing laws to its advantage.
Last year, it began to use its powers of approval over environmental impact assessments, which are mandatory for all new industrial projects, to force powerful industrial firms such as Sinopec and the China National Petroleum Corporation to cut emissions at some of their plants, threatening to veto all new approvals until the firms met their targets.
Reuters reports the new law would give the ministry the legal authority to take stronger punitive action.
“The environment ministry could only impose fines and management deadlines,” Professor Cao said.
“Now we can close and confiscate them. It’s an important right.”
It will also set up a more comprehensive range of punishments, putting an end to a maximum fine system that allowed enterprises to continue polluting once they had paid a one-off fee normally much lower than the cost of compliance.
Professor Cao said the final draft was also likely to impose an “ecological red line” that will declare certain protected regions off-limits to polluting industry, though detailed definitions are likely to come later.
The legislation also proposes to formalise a system by which local cadres are assessed according to their record on pollution issues, including meeting emissions targets.
For nearly two years, scholars, ministries, local governments, companies and environment ministry officials have been debating the changes to the environmental protection law.
