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Announcing the Release of the Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) in English

We are pleased to release the English version of our 2008-09 Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI), a collaboration between the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). As you may recall, PITI is an evaluation and ranking of environmental transparency in 113 Chinese cities. We released these results (in Chinese) last summer and the response has been very positive.

At the end of last year, we learned that China Economic Times, an influential national Chinese newspaper, selected PITI as one of the top ten environmental events of 2009, saying:

[PITI] can be called a model of non-governmental organizations playing their role of supervising government. Here, NGOs have not simply relied on passion and a spirit of protecting environmental interests, but have drawn from the power of expertise, and used legal channels and dialogue with the government. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News

Beijing to introduce new air pollution legislation (Google translation) This week, the Beijing municipal government released an announcement detailing the sixteenth stage of the city’s air pollution control measures. The announcement states that for 2010’s air pollution control measures, Beijing will explore a permitting and emissions trading system and move toward legislation that will create a total emission control system for major air pollutants, two policy measures that have not been mentioned in previous air pollution plans. (Source: Beijing Business News) Anhui Province finds high levels of violations and pollution through surprise inspection program (Google translation) Anhui Provincial officials announced … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(3)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News

Nine ministries unite to tackle heavy metal pollution (Google translation) At a April 9 conference on public health and environmental protection, Environment minister Zhou Shengxian stressed that addressing and remediation heavy metal pollution would be the top environmental task of the year. Nine ministries and commissions will focus on heavy metal prevention this year, he announced. Among the policies that have gone into effect already include a telephone hotline for citizens wishing to report heavy metal pollution, which has already collected information on 82 incidents. Zhou also revealed that 32 mass incidents across the country have been linked to heavy … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News


Chinese cities respond to information transparency index (Google translation)
The IPE and NRDC-sponsored Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) generated media attention when the information disclosure rankings of 113 Chinese cities were released last June. Since that time, local city governments have noticed the report. Ma Jun, the head of IPE, noted that sixteen cities have replied to the pollution report, with several seeking additional advice and offering feedback. (Source: China Economic Times)
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CCTV-9’s Dialogue Focuses on Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI)

Ma Jun, director of the Institute for Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), and I appeared on the August 23, 2009 edition of CCTV-9’s Dialogue television program to discuss the Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI), our effort with IPE to evaluate and rank government environmental information transparency in 113 Chinese cities (see here for background).


cctvAlexMajun

I note a few highlights after the jump, but please feel free to take a look at the entire show. Let us know what you think. We are continuing to work on a full report of our findings, which will be released in early 2010. Environmental transparency has critical implications for pollution in China (including recent heavy metal accidents around the country) and climate change discussions going forward (as I note here).
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Environmental Transparency in China: the First Annual Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) and Implications for Climate Change

The First Annual Pollution Information Transparency Index In partnership with the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), we launched a Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) last month on June 3rd.  This is China’s first index to evaluate environmental information transparency in 113 cities around China.  We are now providing for the first time an English translation of our initial PITI findings. One of the central findings of our research concerns what we termed China’s “All-Star Team.” The point here is that if we look at the top performers in each category of transparency we evaluated, we find some Chinese … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(1)

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Ma Jun: Supplying a greener industry


The Guardian UK ran this article last week from Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) and NRDC partner. We are working with IPE on an innovative look at the way environmental information is being disclosed in more than 100 cities in China. We’ll have more details on this next week, so stay tuned.
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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News

Zhengzhou Open Government Information Work Report released (Google translation) Henan Province officials announced the publication of Zhengzhou’s open government information work report last week. The city disclosed nearly 40,000 documents during the previous year. Of the 2998 information disclosure applications filed, the government fulfilled all but 6. (Source: Xinhua) Yan Yiming: King of Litigation (Google translation) Yan Yiming gives his first interview to Southern People Weekly in the aftermath of a surprise attack by three unidentified men that left him injured. The piece covers his history of taking on public interest cases often related to information disclosure and financial rights … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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China’s Open Information Regulations Turn One!

Today is the first anniversary of the State Council Open Government Information Regulations (OGI Regulations) and the State Environmental Protection Administration Measures on Environmental Open Information going into effect. It has without a doubt been an important year for greater transparency in China. There is still a long way to go for sure, but we’ve seen important progress as well. It’s the May 1st holiday weekend in China and people are in the mood to relax, so for now we will just say ‘happy birthday.’

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One Small Step for Chinese Environmental Public Participation? Civil Society Participates for the First Time in Hydropower Project Technical EIA

Last month marked the first time representatives from Chinese environmental groups were invited to participate in the environmental impact assessment for a major hydropower project in China, according to the First Financial Daily. Ma Jun, director of the Institute for Public & Environmental Affairs, and Yang Yong, representative for the Green Earth Volunteers, took part in the meeting to conduct technical evaluation on environmental impact assessment for the Ahai Dam on the Jingsha River on December 29-30, 2008 in Beijing. One expert at the meeting noted that major preliminary work on the dam had begun prior to completion of the … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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