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Tag Archives: MEP

China Looks to the U.S. to Learn From the Clean Air Act, Even as Some in the U.S. Seek to Dismantle It.

It is remarkable that the U.S. Clean Air Act is under attack these days. Have we come to take the blue skies in the U.S. so for granted that magazines are running columns with titles like “Clean Air Act: Defend or Dismantle?” I have worked for NRDC in Beijing for the last five years, and no one in this great city takes a blue sky day for granted. They are too precious and rare a commodity. Let us not forget, as Peter Lehner recently pointed out, that the Clean Air Act is what prevents the air in the U.S. from … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News


Deputy Procurator General: Executive power should be subject to the constraints of law (Google translation)
In a March 7 interview with CCTV, Sun Qian, China’s Deputy Procurator General, argued that the close collaboration of local governments with enterprises that violated pollution laws posed a threat to China’s rule of law. The government must ultimately be able to represent the plaintiff and the public interest in such cases, he noted. Sun Qian said that one possible solution would be to establish a robust administrative prosecution system to restore oversight and end illegal collusion. (Source: CCTV)
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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News


What happened to our water? (Google translation)
In the wake of numerous reports concerning heavy metal contamination in water poisoning Chinese children, Science News magazine takes a comprehensive look at the state of China’s water. While water quality monitoring has improved over the years, improving water quality remains a serious challenge to environmental officials. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News

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Greenpeace calls out 18 large multinational and domestic companies staying silent on pollution information disclosure (English Press Release)
Shell, Samsung, Nestle, Kraft, and more are among the eighteen multinational and domestic enterprises identified by Greenpeace China in its newest report for violating water pollution laws. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News


MEP releases nationwide statistics for COD and SO2 for first half of 2009 showing downward trend (Google translation)
The latest figures for Chemical Oxygen Demand and sulfur dioxide emissions for all of China’s provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions were releases by MEP in time for the 60th anniversary. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News

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China’s environmental public interest litigation worth the wait (Google translation)
While only five cases of environmental public interest litigation have occurred in China to date, the promise inherent in a developed public interest litigation movement means that China should still develop such a system, argues the Western China Times. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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China Environmental News: More open information, stronger rights protection

As we mentioned a few days ago, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) posted an article on the Ministry website making a strong case for more open information as the way to attack pollution before it leads to accidents like those we have been seeing in recent months in Shaanxi, Hunan, Yunnan and elsewhere. We post a translation of that article here:

After expansive media coverage of the Hunan Liuyang City cadmium accident, the problems were quickly handled. The factory involved Changsha Xianghe Chemical Factory was permanently closed. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Transparency and China’s Recent Pollution Accidents (UPDATED)

Let’s say information about factory emissions of toxic metals was readily available to the public in Hunan and Shaanxi provinces.  Would more than 1,600 children still have been poisoned by lead or cadmium recently? Or would local citizens instead have had the information about health risks in their midst needed to protect themselves or to push the local government and factory officials to take necessary steps to protect the community?  Could these pollution problems have been resolved before they reached such a late and devastating stage?  Would there have been the sort of unrest seen in recent days? My colleague … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(1)

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Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News

Guangdong province’s second environmental public interest litigation case enters trial (Google translation)
Last month, the Guangzhou Maritime Court began trial proceedings for the second environmental public interest litigation case in the province. The Panyu District procuratorate is taking the helm as the plaintiff, filing suit against a local factory responsible for toxic sewage. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Two notable open environmental information articles


Several influential experts have recently published articles on the topic of environmental information disclosure.

Zhang Changjian from Pingan, Fujian wrote a piece titled “The Open Environmental Information Measures: Implementation and Perplexity,” featured in the Greenpeace magazine. Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(1)

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