Monthly Archives: February 2009
Yancheng City’s Water Pollution Attracts National Attention and Debate
With the melamine poisoning cases unresolved and the Yangzonghai Lake arsenic contamination yet to be cleaned up, another serious pollution case shook China last week. Yancheng, a city in Jiangsu Province, saw over 200,000 people affected when the source for their drinking water was contaminated with carbolic acid emitted by a local factory. News of the pollution incident occupied the front pages of the national media for the entire week. From February 20 onwards, Yancheng stopped pumping tap water, affecting the lives of over 200,000 residents who were left with little more than used sewage water. The local Environmental Protection … Continue reading 阅读全文 Add comment 发表评论(4)
News Update: Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance
China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) announced in January that environmental pollution liability insurance, widely known as “green insurance,” had made gradual progress through a pilot program targeting key industries in Hunan, Jiangsu, Hubei, Ningbo, and Shenyang province. Pan Yue, the Vice Minister at MEP, emphasized four points regarding the initiative. First, pilot programs would always precede and test widescale implementation of any green insurance scheme. Second, green insurance policy should aim to develop compensation standards in accordance with industry practices. Third, the pilot should continue to operate on a trial basis for high-risk enterprises and industries. Fourth, China should … Continue reading 阅读全文 Add comment 发表评论(0)
Secretary Clinton Engages China on Climate Change, Clean Energy, and the Environment
The new American administration’s State Department has been moving exceptionally fast. Upon assuming office, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited four major Asian powers – Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, and China – in a trip from February 15 to February 22. The selection of China as the final stop has led many experts to see the country the major focus of the State Department trip. Secretary Clinton met with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on Feburary 21 for friendly bilateral talks, the first instance of high-level contact between the Obama administration and the Chinese government. The characteristic … Continue reading 阅读全文 Add comment 发表评论(0)
Environmental Enforcement Ideas from Sunny California. Episode #1 – Give MEP Stronger Authority over Local Environmental Performance
As Hillary Clinton prepared to visit China for high-level discussions on climate change and energy last week, we landed in California with a group of Chinese experts from government, academia, legal circles and media to talk about approaches to battling air pollution and ways to strengthen China’s air pollution law. The big questions on our minds are these: What enabled the U.S. to turn the corner on air pollution? And how can these ideas contribute to stronger air pollution protection in China? These sorts of questions about environmental governance were not at the top of the list as Secretary Clinton met … Continue reading 阅读全文 Add comment 发表评论(0)
Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News
Shanghai government website courts public comments, despite lingering flaws (Google translation) While upgrades to the Shanghai government website allow for the public to leave comments and view government information on a variety of topics, a thorough evaluation of the website by reporters from the New People’s Daily found several flaws. Among the problems, noted the newspaper, were slow access and missing content for many links. (Source: New People’s Daily)
Cases of Citizens Defending Environmental Rights: Electromagnetic Radiation and Reasonable Use
To help victims of pollution use the law to protect their legal environmental rights, and to give the wider public the basic legal knowledge to protect the environment and their environmental rights, the “People and the Environment” supplement of the Gansu Economic Daily closely planned and consulted with the Environment and Resources Law Research and Service Center at the China University of Political Science and Law before formally launching the “Citizens’ Environmental Rights Protection” column on May 9, 2007. Its goal is to advance and spread the implementation of environmental law in China. This is a collection of cases that … Continue reading 阅读全文 Add comment 发表评论(0)
Green NGOs call for water conservation during China drought
Since November 2008, Northern China has been experiencing one of the most severe droughts in decades. With more than 10 million acres of land and millions of people affected by the water shortage, the crisis has attracted both national and international attention. Recently, 20 Chinese environmental NGOs including Green Earth Volunteers, Beijing Global Village, and the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) launched a joint announcement on February 9th, calling on the public, enterprises, and government bodies to conserve water and monitor its use to get through the drought disaster. The full announcement (in Chinese) can be viewed here.
Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News
The EIA system: what needs to be reformed? (Google translation) In this lengthy article, Xue Huifeng of the NPC Environment and Resources Protection Committee, and Wang Haining, from the Northwest Polytechnic University, analyze the current system for Environmental Impact Assessments. The two authors dissect the elements of the system and propose solutions to improve the efficacy of EIAs. (Source: China Environment News)
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