The Chinese government has put a lot of effort on the improvement of environmental quality and carried out a series of environmental protection and pollution control policies. For example, the pollutants emission fee system has been established as a key pollution control measure. A daily- penalty system is used to punish violations of environmental protection regulations. Also, more than 20 provinces and municipalities directly under the central government have developed their own charging standards on VOCs emissions. Starting from Jan 1st, 2018, another 3 environmental protection laws and regulations have come into force:
The Law of Environmental Protection Tax. The Law was drafted in 2015 and passed by the Standing Committee of The National People's Congress of China in late 2016. It has taken effect and replaced the role of the emission fee system which has been in place for almost 40 years. The implementation rules came into force along with the Law. Up to now, 24 provinces and municipalities have specified their tax levels, which are Beijing, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian, Hebei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hainan, Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin, Henan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Ningxia, and Shanghai. For more ChemLinked reports on environmental protection tax, please see:
The newly revised Law on Prevention and Treatment of Water Pollution. The Law was originally published in 1984 and has been revised 3 times since. The latest revision was passed on Jun 27th, 2017. The newly revised Law further specifies the responsibilities and tasks of the local governments from each administrative level and set the goal to control the total amount of key water pollutants. The penalties on violations were increased and also involve the use of the daily accumulative fines system.
The compensation system of eco-environment damages was also implemented from Jan 1st, 2018. Local governments now have the legal right to claim for compensation from any enterprise involved in accidents or activities which cause pollution. Enterprises are also financially responsible for all associated environmental rectification measures.
