Top 10 Legislative Highlights in China's Clean Air Act

The Chinese "Clean Air Act" , the law of prevention and control of atmospheric pollution, was first put into effect in 1987, and its most recent edition was adopted in 2000. A newly revised draft copy was submitted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council in January 2010, but a copy has not yet been submitted to the National People's Congress, the Economic Observer reported.

Here are the top 10 highlights in this newly revised draft:

1.Basic goal: Improve air quality levels to protect people’s health

2.Forecast, early warning and emergency measuresof heavy pollution incidents

3.Regional joint prevention and control mechanismwill be settled through legal channels

4.Multi-pollutant coordinating controlwill combat complex air pollution problems

5. Supervision and assessment mechanisms oflocal government’s responsibilityin air pollution control will be settled; environmental quality will be added as a standard to assess local officials.

6.Total Emission Controlis bound to be extended from two control zones (zones designated by the State Council for the control of acid rain and sulfur dioxide) to nationwide with more targeted pollutants.

7. No pollutant emissions will be allowed withoutair pollution permits.

8. Tougher rules onmobile source pollution, including higher fuel quality, in-use vehicle environmental protection logo, etc, securing MEP’s bigger say in rule making.

9.Toxic and harmful gaswill be included.

10.Stiffer punishmentfor law violations: revise regulations on maximum fines regarding air pollution accidents from 500,000 yuan (US$ 80,100) to no upper limit.

[These contents in the revised draft law were listed by Mr. Chai Fahe,vice-president of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences who participated in writing the draft, and reorganized by Jiao Meng.]