The State Council Information Office published on Monday a white
paper entitled Environmental Protection in China
(1996-2005). The document, composed of 10 chapters, gives a
systematic introduction to the unremitting efforts made by China in
environmental protection over the past ten years. The full text of
the white paper follows:
Environmental Protection in China
(1996-2005)
Foreword
I. Environmental Protection Legislation and
System
II. Prevention and Control of Industrial
Pollution
III. Pollution Control in Key Regions
IV. Protection of the Urban Environment
V. Protection of the Rural Environment
VI. Ecological Protection and Construction
VII. Economic Policy and Investment Concerning the
Environment
VIII. Environmental Impact Assessment
IX. Environmental Science and Technology, Industry
and Public Participation
X. International Cooperation in Environmental
Protection
Conclusion
Foreword
China is the most populous developing country in the world. Since
the late 1970s, China's economy has developed rapidly and
continuously. During the process, many environmental problems that
have haunted developed countries in different phases of their
100-year-long industrialization have occurred in China all at the
same time. The conflict between environment and development is
becoming ever more prominent. Relative shortage of resources, a
fragile ecological environment and insufficient environmental
capacity are becoming critical problems hindering China's
development.
The Chinese government attaches great importance to environmental
protection. It believes that environmental protection will have a
direct impact on the overall situation of China's modernization
drive and its long-term development, and considers environmental
protection an undertaking that will not only benefit the Chinese
people of today but also their children and grandchildren. Years
ago, the Chinese government established environmental protection as
a basic national policy and sustainable development as an important
strategy, and has adhered to the road of a new type of
industrialization. While promoting economic growth, it has adopted
a whole array of measures to strengthen environmental protection.
Especially in recent years, the Chinese government, with the
scientific outlook on development as the guiding principle of
environmental protection, has adhered to focusing on preventive
measures, comprehensive control and overall progress with
breakthroughs at some key points, and worked hard to solve
conspicuous environmental problems threatening people's health. At
the same time, it has continued its efforts for institutional
innovation, relied on scientific and technological advances,
strengthened the legal system of environmental protection, and
brought into full play the initiative of people of all walks of
life. Thanks to these efforts, although the amount of resource
consumption and pollutants is increasing greatly, the trend toward
aggravated environmental pollution and ecological destruction is
slowing down; especially, environmental pollution control in some
river valleys has seen some positive results, the environmental
quality of some cities and regions has improved, the amount of
pollutant emission of industrial products has declined, and the
people's awareness of the importance of environmental protection
has enhanced.
As World Environment Day nears, in order to let people in other
countries have a better understanding about the situation of
environmental protection in China, we would like to give a
systematic introduction to the unremitting efforts made by China in
environmental protection over the past ten years.
I. Environmental Protection Legislation
and System
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC)
stipulates, "The State protects and improves the environment in
which people live and the ecological environment. It prevents and
controls pollution and other public hazards." Since the PRC was
founded in 1949, the National People's Congress (NPC) and its
Standing Committee have formulated nine laws on environmental
protection and 15 laws on the protection of natural resources.
Since 1996, the State has formulated or revised laws on
environmental protection, such as those on prevention and control
of water pollution, marine environment protection, prevention and
control of air pollution, prevention and control of noise
pollution, prevention and control of solid waste pollution,
evaluation of environmental impact, and prevention and control of
radioactive pollution, as well as laws closely related to
environmental protection, such as those on water, clean production,
renewable energy, agriculture, grassland and animal husbandry. The
State Council has formulated or revised over 50 administrative
regulations, such as the Regulations on Environmental Protection
Management of Construction Projects, Rules for the Implementation
of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution,
Regulations on the Safety Management of Dangerous Chemicals,
Regulations on the Management of Collection and Use of Waste
Discharge Fees, Measures on the Management of Dangerous Waste
Operation Licenses, Regulations on the Protection of Wild Plants,
and Regulations on the Safety Management of Agricultural
Genetically-modified Organisms. It has promulgated documents with
similar power to laws and regulations, such as the Decision on
Implementing the Idea of Taking the Scientific Outlook on
Development and Strengthening Environmental Protection, Opinions
for Quickening the Development of a Cyclical Economy, and Circular
on the Recent Work of Effectively Building a Resource-efficient
Society. Relevant departments of the State Council, local people's
congresses and local people's governments have, within the limit of
their powers, formulated and promulgated over 660 central and local
rules and regulations in order to implement the national laws and
administrative regulations on environmental protection.
China has established a system of environmental protection
standards at both the national and local levels. National-level
environmental protection standards include environmental quality
standards, pollutant discharge (control) standards, and standards
for environmental samples. Local environmental protection standards
include environmental quality and pollutant discharge standards. By
the end of 2005, the State had promulgated over 800 national
environmental protection standards. The municipalities of Beijing
and Shanghai, and the provinces of Shandong and Henan had
promulgated over 30 local environmental protection standards.
China has constantly strengthened checks on the enforcement of
environmental legislation, and improved administrative law
enforcement. In recent years, the State has conducted checks on the
enforcement of laws on environmental protection, and the prevention
and control of air pollution, water pollution and solid waste
pollution, so as to push forward pollution control in key areas.
China's criminal law has special provisions on destruction of
environmental resources. The State has promulgated the Interim
Regulations on the Punishment of Violations of Environmental
Protection Laws or Disciplines, and put in place a responsibility
system of administrative law enforcement in the area of
environmental protection. For three years in a row, the State has
launched special environmental protection campaigns to rectify
enterprises that have discharged pollutants in violation of the law
and to protect people's health. It has dealt with over 75,000
environmental law violation cases, and had 16,000 enterprises
closed down for having discharged pollutants in violation of the
law. More than 10,000 warnings have been issued to environment
polluters, obliging them to remedy the problems under government
supervision. The State has also conducted special checks on the
enforcement of laws regarding mining areas eco-environmental
protection and maritime environmental protection, and has dealt
with a number of law violations.
China has implemented an environmental management system, whereby
governments at all levels are responsible for the environmental
quality of the areas within their jurisdiction, the competent
administrative departments in charge of environmental protection
have the power of overall supervision and management, while other
relevant departments exercise such supervision and management
functions according to the provisions of the law. In 1998 the
Chinese government changed the name of the State Environmental
Protection Bureau to the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA), and elevated it to the ministerial level.
Thus, SEPA became an organization directly under the State Council
to be responsible for exercising overall supervision and management
of China's environmental protection work. The State has set up a
national inter-ministry joint conference system for environmental
protection and established representative offices for regional
environmental supervision, in an effort to strengthen coordination
and cooperation between departments and regions. The governments of
all the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly
under the Central Government), cities and counties have set up
organs responsible for addressing and coordinating environmental
protection issues. There are now 3,226 environmental protection
administration departments at different levels all over China, with
167,000 people engaging in environmental administration,
monitoring, scientific research, publicity and education. There are
3,854 environmental supervision and environmental law enforcement
organs with more than 50,000 staff members. Environmental
protection organs are also found in some government departments for
comprehensive affairs or resource administration departments, as
well as in most large and medium-sized enterprises, responsible for
their own environmental protection work. More than 300,000 people
are employed by these organs.
II. Prevention and Control of Industrial
Pollution
Prevention and control of industrial pollution is the focal
point of China's environmental protection endeavors. China's
strategy in this regard is undergoing a major change compared with
the past. It is changing from control of the end pollution to
control of the origin and the whole process of pollution, from
control of the concentration of the pollutants to control of both
concentration and total amount of pollutants, from control of point
sources to comprehensive control of river valleys or entire
regions, and from simply addressing the pollution problem of an
enterprise to adjusting the industrial structure, promoting clean
production and developing a cyclical economy. The amount of
industrial waste water, oxygen for industrial chemicals, industrial
sulfur dioxide, industrial smoke and industrial dust discharged in
generating one unit of GDP in China in 2004 dropped by 58 percent,
72 percent, 42 percent, 55 percent and 39 percent, respectively,
from 1995. Energy consumption per 10,000 yuan-worth of GDP in 2004
declined by 45 percent from 1990, saving 700 million tons of
standard coal in total. The coal consumption for generating thermal
power, the comparable energy consumption for each ton of steel and
the comprehensive energy consumption for cement declined by 11.2
percent, 29.6 percent and 21.9 percent, respectively.
-- Eliminating and closing down enterprises that have backward
technologies, have caused serious pollution or have wasted
resources. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000),
the State closed down 84,000 small enterprises that had caused both
serious waste and pollution. In the period 2001-2004, the State, on
three occasions in a run, issued directories listing the backward
production capabilities, technologies and products that should be
eliminated, and more than 30,000 enterprises that had wasted
resources and caused serious pollution were winnowed out. Eight
industries that consumed large amounts of resources and caused
serious environmental pollution, i.e., those producing iron and
steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, iron alloy, calcium carbide,
coking, saponin and chromic salt, were rectified, and the
construction of over 1,900 projects was either stopped or
postponed. In 2005, over 2,600 enterprises in the iron and steel,
cement, iron alloy, coking, paper-making and textile printing and
dyeing industries were closed down for having caused serious
environmental pollution and violated industrial policies. Problems
of big industrial polluters such as cement, power, iron and steel,
paper-making and chemicals were tackled in a comprehensive way, and
technological transformation was carried out. As a result, the
discharged amount of principal pollutants has kept declining, while
the output of these sectors has increased year by year.
-- Developing a cyclical economy. The first step is to
engage in clean production by making full use of resources at the
beginning and throughout the whole production process in an
enterprise, so as to minimize, reuse or render harmless the waste
matter; to gradually establish a producer's responsibility system
and extend it to cover the designing phase to promote
ecologically-friendly product design. So far, over 5,000
enterprises in the sectors of chemicals, light industry,
power-generating, coal, machinery, and building materials have
passed the examination for clean production. More than 12,000
enterprises across China have received the ISO14000 Environmental
Management System certification. More than 800 enterprises and over
18,000 products of diverse types and specifications have received
environmental labeling certification. Their annual output value is
worth 60 billion yuan. The second step is that ecological industry
is being vigorously developed in industry-concentrated areas so
that wastes from upstream enterprises become raw materials for
enterprises downstream. This has effectively extended the
production chain, minimized the amount of waste and realized zero
emission. Besides, ecological industrial zones have been
established and resources are being used in the most efficient way
within these zones or among enterprises. At present, 17 ecological
industrial parks of different kinds have been set up nationwide.
The third step is to make overall plans for the development of
industry and agriculture, production and consumption, city and
countryside. This involves vigorously developing industries that
make cyclical use of resources, so as to realize sustainable
production and consumption. The State has conducted the first pilot
cyclical economy program in 82 enterprises in some of the key
industries, fields or industrial parks, and in concerned provinces
and municipalities. A pilot scheme is being carried out in 24
cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, to establish a recycling
system of renewable resources. Hainan, Jilin, Heilongjiang and six
other provinces are actively engaged in building themselves into
ecological provinces, and some 150 cities and counties into
ecological cities and counties.
-- Taking precautions against environmental emergencies.
In 2005, the Chinese government enacted the State Plan for Handling
Environmental Emergencies, which set forth clear requirements on
how to receive, report, handle, compute and analyze information
concerning environmental emergencies, as well as how to monitor and
release early-warning information. The State has formulated and
improved nine plans for water environment emergencies. Among them
are plans for handling water environment emergencies in sensitive
water areas in key river valleys, plans for handling atmospheric
environment emergencies, plans for handling dangerous chemicals
(discarded chemicals) emergencies, and plans for handling nuclear
and radioactive matter emergencies. In addition, it has worked out
the Plan for Handling Water Environment Emergencies in Sensitive
Sections of the Yellow River Valley, Plan for Handling Terrorist
Attacks Involving Chemical Weapons, Plan for Handling Terrorist
Attacks Involving Nuclear and Radioactive Materials, Plan for
Handling Agriculture-related Environmental Pollution Emergencies,
and Plan for Handling Emergencies Involving Major Harmful
Agricultural Organisms or Intrusion of Foreign Organisms. In recent
years, China has evaluated the potential risks of 127 key chemical
and petrochemical projects located near such
environmentally-sensitive areas as the shores of rivers, lakes,
oceans, densely-populated regions and nature reserves, conducting
comprehensive and careful examinations on nearly 50,000 leading
enterprises.
-- Instituting a beginning-to-end management system over
dangerous industrial waste. In 2003, the State put into
practice the Plan for the Construction of Facilities for the
Treatment of Dangerous Wastes and Medical Wastes. Systems such as
those requiring the use of duplicate receipts and operation
licenses in transferring dangerous industrial wastes have been
reinforced. The amount of treated dangerous industrial wastes in
2005 was 3.39 million tons, as compared with 1.31 million tons in
1998. Thirty-one provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities
directly under the Central Government have established management
centers for solid wastes.
-- Exercising strict safety management on nuclear and
radioactive environments. China has five nuclear power plants
(nine nuclear power generating units) and 18 nuclear reactors in
operation. Two nuclear power plants (four nuclear power generating
units) and one nuclear reactor are under construction. No major
nuclear security problems have ever occurred in China. It has
achieved the goal of "protecting the staff, the public and the
environment from being exposed to larger amounts of radiation and
pollution than permitted by the State." China strictly follows the
Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources
issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency. It has adopted
the licensing system, requiring that the import and export of all
radioactive sources go through the formalities of examination and
approval according to law.
III. Pollution Control in Key Regions
In recent years, the Chinese government has focused its
pollution-control efforts on what are known as the "key regions,"
with marked achievements to its credit. The "key regions" refer to
the three rivers (Huaihe, Liaohe and Haihe), the three lakes
(Taihu, Dianchi and Chaohu), the major state projects (the Three
Gorges Project and the South-North Water Diversion Project), the
"two control's area" (sulfur dioxide control area and acid rain
control area), Beijing and the Bohai Sea.
-- Prevention and control of water pollution in key drainage
areas. The drainage area of the above-mentioned three rivers
and three lakes totals 810,000 sq km, traversing 14 provinces
(municipalities) with a total population of 360 million. The State
formulated and put into practice a plan for the prevention and
control of water pollution in key drainage areas for the ninth and
tenth Five-Year Plan periods (1996-2005), under which it set up a
system to control the total amount of pollutants. Every enterprise
that discharges pollutants is required to reduce its emission to a
certain level, which contributes to the goal of reducing the total
amount of pollutants. While improving its pollutant-discharge
licensing management method, the State had established a number of
key pollution-control projects. By the end of 2005, of the 2,130
water pollution prevention and control projects in key drainage
areas in the Tenth Five-Year Plan, 1,378 were completed, accounting
for 65 percent of the total. In the three-river, three-lake
drainage area, 416 sewage treatment plants have been completed or
are under construction, with a daily treating capacity of 20.93
million tons. Over 80 percent of the more than 5,000 heavy
polluters in the drainage area have reached the standard discharge
level. Water pollutants in this drainage area have been reduced
greatly, and the trend toward deteriorating water environment is
now basically under control. Water quality in certain parts of the
rivers or lakes has been improved significantly. The State has
spent 18.167 billion yuan constructing sewage- and
garbage-treatment facilities in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and
its upper stream. It also has had solid wastes removed from the bed
of the reservoir to ensure water safety.
-- Prevention and control of pollution in the "two control's
area." In 1998, the Chinese government approved the delimiting
of the acid rain control area and sulfur dioxide control area. The
"two control's area" covers a total of 1.09 million sq km,
involving 175 cities or districts in 27 provinces, autonomous
regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.
The State readjusted the energy structure in this area by promoting
the use of clean fuel and low-sulfur coal, and prohibiting
residents in big and medium cities from using coal for household
stoves. Compared with 1998, the proportion of cities located within
the sulfur dioxide control area that achieved the standard annual
sulfur dioxide density level in 2005 rose from 32.8 percent to 45.2
percent. The proportion of cities located within the acid rain
control area whose sulfur dioxide density surpassed the national
third grade level declined from 15.7 percent in 1998 to 4.5 percent
in 2005.
-- Air pollution control in Beijing. Beijing has taken
measures to control air pollution since 1998. Technologies that use
clean energy or save on energy are being widely introduced. This
includes the use of natural gas, electricity-powered heating,
geothermal resources, and energy-saving architecture. In 2005, the
amount of natural gas used in Beijing was 3.2 billion cu m, and the
city's heating network provided central heating to buildings
exceeding 100 million sq m in area. Management of motor vehicle
emission was tightened, and environmental protection labeling was
adopted for motor vehicles; those with high emission were
identified with yellow labels and prohibited from using some roads.
More than 300,000 old or dilapidated motor vehicles were scrapped
and 2,800 public buses burning natural gas were introduced. In
2005, the national emission standard for the third phase
(equivalent to the European Standard III) was adopted ahead of
schedule. Standards for environmental protection on construction
sites were revised and improved, and management was tightened.
Supervision and inspection were strengthened for road sweeping and
water spraying by machines. More than 100 enterprises in the city
center that caused pollution were closed down or moved out. All
shaft kiln cement production lines were closed down. Thanks to
these efforts, the number of days with Grade II air quality or
better in Beijing increased from 100 in 1998 to 234 in 2005. The
concentration of various air pollutants all declined, and air
quality improved significantly.
-- Control of pollution in the Bohai Sea. In 2001, the
Chinese government approved the Action Plan to Bring Back Turquoise
Water to the Bohai Sea. By the end of 2005, 166 projects aimed at
controlling pollution in the Bohai Sea and protecting the
environment were completed, and 70 more were under construction,
with the investment totaling 17.5 billion yuan. Forty-four new
urban sewage treatment plants were built, with a total daily
treatment capacity of 3.553 million tons. Eighteen new urban
garbage treatment plants were established, with a total daily
treatment capacity of more than 7,000 tons. In addition, 89
ecologically-friendly agriculture and breeding industry projects
were set up, and nine ports and oil-spill response projects built,
bringing under control the trend toward environmental deterioration
in the Bohai Sea for the time being.
IV. Protection of the Urban
Environment
The urbanization ratio of China grew from 29.04 percent in 1995
to 41.76 percent in 2004. To tackle environmental problems arising
from rapid urbanization, the Chinese government has adopted a
series of comprehensive measures to gradually improve the urban
environment. As a result, the environment in some cities has been
remarkably improved. Compared with 1996, in 2005 the proportion of
cities with air quality reaching Grade II of the state standard
increased by 31 percentage points, while that of cities with air
quality lower than Grade III decreased by 39 percentage
points.
Considering the capacity of the urban environment and the ability
to guarantee resource preservation, many Chinese cities have laid
out and implemented general urban planning and planning to fully
attain required standards for urban environmental quality based on
functional districts, measure the capacity of the atmospheric and
water environments, determine city size and the orientation of
development in a rational way, adjust the structure and
distribution of urban industries, and gradually optimize the
division of functional districts. Many large and medium-sized
cities have carried out the strategy to phase out secondary
industry and promote the tertiary sector; local governments have
shut down some enterprises with serious pollution problems, moved
some such enterprises out of the city center through the use of
land pricing, and implemented technological transformation and
concentrated control of pollution based on the principle of
"keeping industry in industrial parks and concentrating on
pollution control." Some cities have combined the transformation of
old cities with the adjustment of city layout to change the
dirtiness, disorderliness and insanitariness characteristic of old
urban areas and improve the living environment of urban residents.
They have made great efforts to adjust urban energy structure, and
actively advocated clean energy and central heating, so as to
reduce pollution caused by burning coal. Ready-mixed concrete is
introduced in urban construction, and concrete mixing is prohibited
in city centers of the municipalities directly under the Central
Government, the cities directly under provincial governments, some
large and medium-sized cities, and tourism cities, so as to reduce
dust pollution caused by construction.
Governments at all levels in China have taken the construction of
urban environmental infrastructure as the focus of financial input,
pushing forward the construction of facilities dealing with sewage
and waste. By the end of 2004, the rate of urban sewage treatment
had reached 46 percent; that of innocuous disposal of house refuse,
52 percent; and consumption of clean energy in city centers, 40
percent. In recent years, the vehicle emission standards have
proceeded from Phase I to Phase II, and Phase III standards have
been drawn up. Some cities have started a clean vehicle campaign,
actively promoting the use of low-pollution vehicles fueled by
natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. Since July 2000, leaded
gasoline has been prohibited throughout China, reducing lead
emission by 1,500 tons each year.
The quantitative examination system for comprehensive urban
environmental control has been introduced in over 500 Chinese
cities. The system gives quantitative standards for the quality of
the urban environment, pollution control and construction of urban
environmental infrastructure, and thus will help to comprehensively
assess the environmental protection work of city governments. Since
1997, the Central Government has started a campaign to build
environmental-protection model cities as required by economic
development, social progress, facilities amelioration and
environmental improvement. At present, more than 100 cities
(districts) are building themselves into environmental-protection
model cities, among which 56 cities and five districts in
municipalities directly under the Central Government have succeeded
in meeting the required standards. These model cities enjoy 80
percent of the total number of days a year with air quality
reaching or above Grade II, city sewage treatment rate is higher
than 70 percent, the rate of innocuous disposal of house refuse
higher than 80 percent and greenery coverage rate higher than 35
percent -- all above the national average. And "azure sky, blue
water, green land, tranquility and harmony" have become prominent
features of these model cities.
In recent years, the Chinese government has made great efforts in
city afforestation, so as to landscape cities and improve the
environment for human settlement. At the end of 2004, the coverage
of green areas in Chinese cities was 31.66 percent, 3.51 higher
than in 2000; the greening rate was 27.72 percent, a growth of 4.05
percent compared to 2000; and the per-capita public green area was
7.39 sq m, or double the 3.7 sq m of 2000. So far, the State has
named 83 national-level garden cities, four garden city districts
and 10 national-level garden county towns, and honored 12 cities
with the "Human Settlement Environment Award."
V. Protection of the Rural
Environment
China is a large agricultural country, and rural residents
account for the overwhelming majority of the population. Thus, it
is an important environmentalist task to control pollution of the
agricultural environment and improve the rural environment.
-- Comprehensive control of the rural environment. In
recent years, the Chinese government has launched campaigns to
build towns and townships with a beautiful environment and
ecologically advanced villages, pushing forward comprehensive
control of the rural environment. At present, 178 towns and
townships have been awarded the title of "National-level Towns and
Townships with a Beautiful Environment." The Chinese government is
concentrating on the demonstration of comprehensive control of
pollution from livestock, poultry and fish breeding, and non-point
pollution in Taihu, Dianchi and Chaohu lakes, as well as in the
Yangtze, Zhujiang and Yellow river deltas. Some provinces and
municipalities have beefed up control of the village environment
and improved village infrastructure, and made progress in treating
rural sewage and waste and controlling agricultural non-point
pollution. In recent years, China has completed more than 800,000
rural drinking water projects, solving difficulties and insecurity
in this regard for 67 million rural residents. The government has
started the investigation of soil pollution and demonstration of
pollution control throughout the country, and set up a system of
testing and controlling the security of agricultural products;
strengthened the environmental security control of pesticides and
chemical fertilizer, popularized high-efficiency, low-toxicity and
low-residue pesticides, and prohibited the use of high-toxic and
high-residual pesticides in the production of vegetables, fruits,
grain, tea and Chinese medicinal herbs; prevented non-point
pollution brought about by irrational use of chemical fertilizer,
pesticides, farm-use plastic sheeting and wastewater irrigation, so
as to ensure the security of agricultural products; developed and
produced new, safe, high-quality and high-efficiency feed,
improving the utilization rate of feed and reducing pesticide
residue of breeding industry products and discharge of harmful
substances; popularized the technique of comprehensively utilizing
and treating faeces of livestock and poultry, and encouraged the
development of eco-agricultural projects that closely integrates
breeding industry with crop farming.
-- Development of eco-agriculture and ecological demonstration
zones. The Chinese government has put the development of
eco-agriculture high on the agenda for promoting the overall and
coordinated development of the rural economy and ecological
environment. At present, there are more than 400 eco-agriculture
counties in China, and more than 500 counties and cities with
eco-agriculture demonstration zones. Among them, there are 102
national-level eco-agriculture counties and 233 national-level
eco-agriculture demonstration zones. In recent years, the Chinese
government has continuously improved the system for developing and
managing organic food, and issued the Measures on the
Administration of Organic Food Certification and the National
Organic Food Standards; released the national standard for good
agricultural practice (GAP) and the implementation rules on the GAP
certification to tackle the organic food problem at its source; and
started to build national organic food production bases, with 43
national-level bases having been named as such, helping the
industrialization of organic food. Well over three million ha
throughout the country have met the organic food certification
requirements.
-- Development of dry-farming and water-saving
agriculture. By 2005, the Chinese government had poured over
700 million yuan into building more than 460 dry-farming and
water-saving agriculture demonstration bases in semi-arid and arid
areas, making comprehensive use of agronomic, biological and
engineering measures and dry-farming technologies, and making full
use of natural precipitation to increase water utilization and
agricultural production ability, and control soil erosion. The
State has been actively popularizing protective cultivation,
including stalk coverage, no-tillage sowing, deep plowing and
weeding, with the focus on the two recently completed protective
cultivation belts, one around Beijing and Tianjin, and the other in
duststorm sources in the northwest. By the end of 2005, 100
demonstration counties had been set up.
-- Development of new-energy projects in rural areas. It
is an important approach to protecting and improving the rural
ecological environment to develop and popularize new types of
energy in rural areas. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, the
State spent 3.5 billion yuan to popularize an ecological model of
energy with marsh gas as the pivot. By the end of 2005, there were
more than 17 million households using methane, and the yearly
output of methane reached 6.5 billion cu m. The government has
devoted major efforts to developing a project producing methane
from wastes in livestock and poultry breeding. So far, more than
2,200 such methane projects have been completed, treating more than
60 million tons of faeces. And 137,000 methane pits for purifying
domestic sewage and over 500 central heating projects with gas from
burning stalks have been built. In addition, 189 million households
now use fuel-saving stoves, and solar water heaters cover a total
of 28.5 million sq m. Meanwhile, the government has been actively
promoting the use of renewable solar, wind and geothermal energy
sources.
VI. Ecological Protection and
Construction
The eco-environment in some parts of China has begun to improve
after a long period of unswerving efforts.
-- Afforestation. The Chinese government has set a
guideline focusing on ecological construction for the development
of forestry, organized large-scale afforestation, strengthened the
administration of forest resources, and initiated the compensation
system for efforts made to achieve forest ecological efficiency. As
a result, the total newly afforested area has reached over 6.67
million ha every year since 2002. In recent years, the total forest
area and the amount of forest reserves have increased rapidly; the
structures in terms of age of stand and the form of forest have
become more rationalized, and the quality of forests is improving,
achieving a historic turn from a downward to an upward trend. At
present, the national forest acreage is 175 million ha; the forest
cover, 18.21 percent; and forest reserves, 12.456 billion cu m. The
State has given great attention to ecological forest construction.
Since 1998, China has worked on projects to protect natural forest
reserves, to reforest cultivated land, to build shelterbelts in
northern, northeastern and northwestern China and in the Yangtze
River basin, to control the sources of duststorms in the
Beijing-Tianjin area, to build wild animal and plant reserves and
other types of nature reserves, as well as fast-growing,
high-yielding timber bases in some key areas. During the Tenth
Five-Year Plan period, the natural forest protection project
succeeded in securing eight million ha of forest for ecological
benefits, enabling 93.33 million ha of forest resources to recover.
The project to reforest cultivated land created 21.33 million ha of
forests, among which 5.38 million ha were ecological forests
transformed from cultivated farmland, 12 million ha were planted on
barren hills and wasteland, and 1.33 million ha were created by
closing off hillsides for afforestation. In addition, 6.67 million
ha of land were covered in various ways by efforts to control the
sources of duststorms in the Beijing-Tianjin area. The shelterbelt
projects in northern, northeastern and northwestern China and in
the Yangtze River basin as well as other key shelterbelt
construction areas resulted in the reforestation of 3.41 million ha
of land, and new greenery on 3.46 million ha of hillsides by
closing them off for forest conservation.
-- The protection of pastures. In order to strengthen the
eco-construction and planned management of grasslands, the
strategic emphasis has been shifted from reaching economic goals to
"giving equal importance to ecological, economic and social goals,
with ecological goals receiving the priority." As a result, the
vegetation coverage has effectively recovered and the
eco-environment on the grasslands is improving. There is a
continued increase in state investment in pasture protection and
construction. From 2000 to 2005, over nine billion yuan was
earmarked for this purpose from the central budget to support the
projects of natural pasture vegetation recovery and construction,
the building of pasture fences and forage grass seed bases, the
halting of herding for vegetation recovery, and grassland
eco-construction to control the duststorm sources threatening the
Beijing-Tianjin area. These projects have brought about good
ecological, economic and social results. By the end of 2005, the
acreage of man-made grasslands had added up to 13 million ha, that
of improved pasture to 14 million ha and that of fenced pasture to
33 million ha. Twenty percent of the pastures now practice grazing
prohibition, grazing land recovery and designated rotation
grazing.
-- Land protection, development and treatment. The Chinese
government has set the protection of cultivated land as a basic
national policy, and has implemented a strict policy for protecting
cultivated land. The State has designated basic farmland
conservation area as the key basis for grain security. Meanwhile, a
land-use control system has been set up to strictly control the
total amount and percentage of land used for construction to curb
the unjustified appropriation of farmland. In 2004, the total
farmland used for construction purposes decreased by 37 percent
from the previous year, achieving an overall balance between use
and compensation of farmland. The government has also increased the
intensity of land development and treatment, drawn up regulations
for managing land development and treatment projects, and organized
the implementation of the state-invested land development and
treatment projects, so as to maintain an overall dynamic balance in
farmland and to improve the eco-environment. In the Tenth Five-Year
Plan period, 76,000 ha of land were reclaimed after scientific
development and treatment of the land in rural and urban areas, the
natural-disaster-damaged land, and the discarded land in industrial
and mining areas. A number of new rural areas have emerged with
neat layout and sound eco-environment, and the eco-environment of
some resources-drained cities and key mining areas has been further
improved or restored.
-- Water and soil conservation. The State has organized
many special projects to control duststorm sources that threaten
the Beijing-Tianjin area, to conserve water and soil for the
sustainable use of the water resources in the capital area, to
build up silt dams for water and soil conservation on the Loess
Plateau, and to prevent and control comprehensively soil erosion in
the black earth area in the northeast and in the limestone areas
along the Southern and Northern Panjiang rivers on the upper
reaches of the Zhujiang River. So far, the key areas of water and
soil conservation have been expanded from the upper and middle
reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers to the black earth area in
the northeast, the upper reaches of the Zhujiang River and the area
around Beijing and Tianjin. The construction of national
demonstration areas and demonstration projects has resulted in the
completion of over 300 water and soil conservation projects each
covering over 200 sq km, 190 eco-friendly model counties and 1,398
small demonstration drainage areas in terms of water and soil
conservation. The State has also started to build the first group
of 62 demonstration areas, each no less than 300 sq km, and over 50
sci-tech demonstration parks for water and soil conservation.
Experimental work for water and soil conservation and ecological
restoration has been conducted in 188 counties throughout the
country, and overall protection has been carried out by closing off
hillsides for afforestation in all key areas covered by water and
soil conservation projects, putting some 126,000 sq km under such
protection. Also, a project for preventing soil erosion is underway
in the headwater areas of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers.
So far, 980 counties in 25 provinces (autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the Central Government) have wholly
or partially closed hills or mountains to livestock grazing, which
has hastened the recovery of the vegetation in areas totaling more
than 600,000 sq km. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, China
succeeded in bringing 240,200 sq km of eroded land under
comprehensive control of water and soil erosion, improving 11,500
small drainage areas, creating 4.06 million ha of basic farmland,
cultivating 15.33 million ha of forests for water and soil
conservation, cash fruit and preserving headwaters, building up
7,000 silt dams and 3.5 million small water and soil conservation
projects involving silt-blocking dams and slope water works.
-- Sand prevention and control. The Chinese government has
made it a strategic principle to prevent land degradation and
desertification for the improvement of the eco-environment, for the
expansion of the spaces of survival and development, and for
coordinated, sustainable socio-economic development. It has
promulgated and implemented the Law on Sand Prevention and Control,
approved the National Plan for Sand Prevention and Control
(2005-2010), and issued the Decision on Further Strengthening the
Work of Sand Prevention and Control. It has also organized a number
of key relevant projects, achieving a net reduction in the areas
suffering from land degradation and desertification. By the end of
2004, the total area of degraded land in China was 2,636,200 sq km,
and that of desertified land was 1,739,700 sq km, net decreases of
37,924 sq km and 6,416 sq km, respectively, in a span of five years
from 1999. Also, the degrees of land degradation and
desertification had been alleviated, with a shrinkage of 245,900 sq
km of the seriously and very seriously degraded land, initially
curbing the overall expansion of land degradation and
desertification.
-- Marine environmental protection. China has formed a
basic legal system and an administrative law-enforcement system for
marine environmental protection, set up a network for monitoring
the marine environment, worked out and implemented marine function
zoning and offshore environmental function zoning, so as to ensure
the rational exploitation and protection of marine resources,
prevent marine pollution and ecological destruction, and promote
sustainable development of the ocean economy. The Chinese
government has actively implemented a pollution prevention and
control plan for the major sea-flowing rivers, and an environmental
protection plan for the major sea areas. Following the Bohai Sea
program, in 2005 the Chinese government started pollution control
work in the sea areas around the estuaries of the Yangtze and
Zhujiang rivers, carrying out environment monitoring and
investigation in these areas, under overall planning with due
consideration for both rivers and oceans, and both land and sea
areas. The Chinese government has strictly implemented the
administrative system for the examination and approval of oceanic
engineering projects and of ocean dumping, intensified
law-enforcement supervision over such dumping and strengthened
monitoring of the marine environment. The State has approved the
Emergency Plan for Red Tide Disasters and the Emergency Plan for
Major Oil Spills from Oceanic Petroleum Exploration, and
incorporated them into the national disaster emergency control
system, thus giving initial shape to a marine disaster emergency
control mechanism. The Chinese government has tightened its
administration over the prevention and control of pollution from
shipping, and the shipment of dangerous materials, and
energetically promoted the construction of an emergency system for
oil-spills from ships at sea. By the end of 2004, 120 marine nature
reserves at different levels had been established in China, and a
group of rare marine species placed under proper protection, in
particular, important oceanic eco-systems such as coral reefs,
mangrove forests and seaweed beds. By means of a series of measures
taken to control the intensity of fishing, reduce the number of
fishing boats, improve the moratorium system, establish marine
sanctuaries, and practice zero growth rate, marine fishery
resources have been protected and revived.
-- The construction of nature reserves, protected eco-areas,
and places of historical interest and scenic beauty. The
Chinese government deems the establishment of nature reserves as an
important step to protect the eco-environment. By the end of 2005,
there were 2,349 nature reserves of various kinds and levels in
China, covering 1.5 million sq km and taking up about 15 percent of
the country's land territory; a national nature reserves network
with relatively complete types and a relatively rational layout had
been initially formed, effectively protecting 85 percent of the
land ecosystem types, 85 percent of wildlife species, and 65
percent of the natural plant community in China. Also, the State
has started eco-area construction in the areas of river headwaters,
and areas important for preserving water sources, river flood
storage and buffering, sand fixing with windbreaks, and other
ecologically important areas. National-level experimental eco-areas
were set up in 18 typical regions, including the areas of the
Dongjiang River headwaters, Dongting Lake and the Qinling
Mountains. The construction of local eco-areas was also carried out
in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the provinces of
Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Gansu and Qinghai. So far, 677
places of historical interest and scenic beauty have been approved
by the Chinese government, among which 187 are national-level ones.
A group of nature reserves and national-level key places of
historical interest and scenic beauty have been inscribed on the
UNESCO's World Heritage List, International Man and Biosphere
Reserve Network, or List of Wetlands of International Importance.
They include Mount Taishan, Mount Huangshan, Mount Emei and the
Leshan Giant Buddha, Mount Wuyi, Mount Lushan, Wulingyuan Scenic
Area, Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic Area, Huanglong Scenic Area, Mount
Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Dam, and the Three Parallel Rivers.
There are more than 1,900 forest parks of various kinds in China,
with 627 national-level ones. China has 85 national geological
parks, eight of them having been included in the first group of the
World Network of Geoparks: Mount Huangshan in Anhui Province, Mount
Lushan in Jiangxi Province, Mount Yuntai in Henan Province, the
Stone Forest in Yunnan Province, Mount Danxia in Guangdong
Province, Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, the Five Volcanic Chain
Lakes in Heilongjiang Province and Mount Songshan in Henan
Province.
-- Conservation of biodiversity. China is a country rich
in biodiversity. The State has formulated the China Action Plan for
Biodiversity Conservation, followed by China's Biodiversity: A
Country Study and the Plan for the Protection and Utilization of
the Resources of Biological Species. At present, there are 250
bases for saving and breeding wildlife, over 400 centers for
conserving and cultivating wild plant species or preserving wild
plant genes in China, which have artificially produced stable
species groups for over 200 kinds of endangered rare animals and
about 1,000 types of wild plants. Meanwhile, investigation and
collection of key wild plants on the verge of extinction and under
state protection have been carried out, and 67 zones have been set
up to protect the original habitats of wild agricultural plants. A
nationwide investigation has also been carried out on species from
abroad, and action has been taken to root out the most harmful and
noxious of such species in 100 counties in ten provinces, enhancing
the public awareness and people's capacity to guard against the
intrusion of foreign species. Among the 189 types of wild plants
covered in a national investigation of wild plant resources, 71
percent are up to the standard for stable survival, and 55.7
percent of the 252 kinds of wild animals covered by a national
investigation have been shown to be increasing steadily. The
numbers of rare and endangered wild animal species, such as the
Chinese alligator and red ibis, have increased by wide margins. The
number of wild giant pandas has now reached 1,596, and domesticated
ones, 183. Some wildlife species have been found in wider areas,
and new records, breeding grounds or winter homes of black-beaked
gulls and black-faced spoonbills have been constantly discovered.
Arborvitae, which was declared by the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources to be an extremely
endangered species after having disappeared in China for over 100
years, has been found in China again.
-- Wetland protection. The Chinese government has
promulgated the National Plan for Wetland Protection Action;
formulated and implemented the National Program for Wetland
Protection Engineering (2002-2030) and the National Implementation
Program for Wetland Protection Engineering (2005-2010). So far,
China has 473 wetland nature reserves, totaling 43.46 million ha.
Almost 45 percent of the natural wetlands included in the country's
wetland nature reserves have been protected effectively; and 30
wetlands, including the marshlands of Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake
and Zhalong, have been put on the List of Wetlands of International
Importance, totaling 3.46 million ha. With the stable expansion of
the acreage of some key wetlands, and the recovery and improvement
of their ecological functions, the trend toward rapid decrease in
the overall area of wetlands has been effectively checked. The
protection of urban wetland resources has drawn more attention and
been strengthened; and the government has approved the
establishment of ten urban wetland parks.
VII. Economic Policy and Investment
Concerning the Environment
The last decade has seen the largest increase ever in China's
investment in its environmental protection. A pluralistic financing
system based on government support has taken initial shape after
years of efforts.
-- Increasing government input into environmental
protection. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, 111.9
billion yuan was earmarked from the central budget for
environmental protection, of which 108.3 billion yuan from the
treasury bonds was used mainly to control the duststorm sources
threatening the Beijing-Tianjin area, to protect natural forests,
to turn cultivated farmland back into forests or pastures, to
control pollution around the Yangtze River's Three Gorges Dam area
and its upstream, as well as pollution on the Huaihe, Liaohe and
Haihe rivers, Taihu, Dianchi and Chaohu lakes, to industrialize the
reuse and recycling of sewage and garbage, and to reclaim waste
water. Since 1998, the State has focused treasury bond investment
on environmental infrastructure construction, bringing along a
large amount of social investment. Between 1996 and 2004, China's
investment into environmental pollution control reached 952.27
billion yuan, amounting to one percent of that period's GDP. In
2006, expenditure on environmental protection has been formally
itemized in the State's financial budget.
-- Improving policies concerning environment-related fee
collection. The management and collection of discharge fees
have been strengthened by strict separation of their collection and
use, and channeling the fees exclusively into the prevention and
control of environmental pollution. The collection of sulfur
dioxide discharge fees has been expanded to include all related
enterprises, public institutions and private businesses, and the
rate of such fees per kg has been raised from 0.2 to 0.63 yuan. The
treatment of urban sewage, garbage and hazardous wastes is also
charged, so as to channel social capital in a variety of ways into
the environmental protection infrastructure construction and
operation, and to promote the marketization and industrialization
of pollution control. A concession operation system has been
established and implemented for the operation of urban sewage and
garbage treatment. In some places, the operation of sewage
treatment plants and garbage treatment establishments set up by the
government has been transferred to enterprises through public
bidding/tendering and contracting. In this way, the government has
strengthened its role of supervision while the economic returns of
the investment in environmental protection have also been
augmented.
-- Formulating price and tax policies favorable to
environmental protection. A mechanism to share fees for
renewable energy resources has been established. The part of the
price of grid electricity generated by renewable energy higher than
that of the electricity generated by local desulfurized
coal-burning generators, the difference between the expenses for
maintaining the independent power system using renewable energy
subsidized or funded by the government and the average power price
of local provincial power grids, as well as the expenses involved
in renewable-energy-generated electricity to be incorporated in
power grids, will be resolved by collecting extra fees from
electricity consumers. The tax rebate policies for exported
products, including iron and steel, electrolytic aluminum and iron
alloy, have been annulled or reduced in group form. Taxation policy
has been formulated in favor of auto industry upgrading and auto
pollution alleviation. The consumption tax will be reduced by 30
percent for auto producers if they reach the low-pollution emission
standard ahead of schedule. Tax reduction or exemption are extended
to enterprises engaged in reclaiming renewable resources, making
comprehensive use of resources and producing equipment for
environmental protection, as well as enterprises using waste water,
gas and residues as the main materials of production. The policy of
collecting tax on the occupation of cultivated land is observed
strictly, so as to promote the rational use of land resources,
strengthen land management and protect arable land. The standards
of tax collected on the production of coal, crude oil, and natural
gas will be raised in steps in the future in order to protect
mineral resources and promote the rational development and
utilization of resources.
VIII. Environmental Impact
Assessment
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a legal measure to curb
environmental pollution and ecological destruction at the source.
In 1998, the Chinese government promulgated the Regulations on
Environmental Management of Construction Projects, which put forth
the idea of environmental impact assessment, and required
construction projects to design, construct and put into use
relevant environmental protection facilities along with the
progress of the project itself ("three simultaneousnesses" for
short). The Law of the People's Republic of China on Environmental
Impact Assessment, which came into effect in 2003, extends the EIA
practice from construction projects to all development construction
plans. The State has also adopted the EIA engineer professional
qualification certification system to foster a contingent of
professional technicians in this field.
EIA is practiced in 1.46 million construction projects nationwide,
and 630,000 new projects have met the requirements of designing,
constructing and putting into use relevant environmental protection
facilities, with the implementation ratio being 99.3 percent and
96.4 percent, respectively, 95.7 percent of the latter has reached
the set standards. Since 1996, a total of 26,998 billion yuan has
gone into construction projects across the country, of which the
input for environmental protection amounts to 1,230.6 billion yuan,
and the amount keeps rising year by year. Thanks to the
implementation of the EIA system, industrial projects are reporting
"increase in output instead of pollution" or "increase in output
with decrease in pollution," and some ecological projects involving
major environmentally sensitive issues have avoided potential
ecological damage by making changes to the site, route or plan. In
2005, 30 illegal construction projects involving a total of 117.94
billion yuan of investment were halted. In February 2006, ten
construction projects, with a total of 29 billion yuan of
investment, were investigated and dealt with for not simultaneously
designing, constructing and putting into use relevant environmental
protection facilities.
The state environmental protection authorities have listed Inner
Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Dalian and Wuhan, the railway and
petrochemical industries, the planning of the Ningxia Ningdong Coal
Chemical Industry Base and that of the Shanghai urban rail
transportation network as the first pilots of EIA practice in the
field of construction planning. The authorities have also completed
the EIA work regarding the Special Plan on the Integrated
Construction of the National Forestry and Paper-making Industry,
conducted EIA work regarding the development and utilization
planning of the Tarim River valley, the middle and lower reaches of
the Lancang River, the Dadu River in Sichuan, the upper reaches of
the Yalong River, and the Yuanshui River valley. When applying EIA
to the Nujiang River valley hydropower development plan,
comparisons were made regarding the environmental impact to be
caused by the layout, scale, ways and sequence of time at different
steps of the development plans, and measures were suggested to
prevent and reduce the possible impact. The EIA of the stepped
hydropower development plan of the Dadu River valley had taken into
full consideration the coordination between environment and
development, and made comprehensive arrangements for protection of
the environment in the valley where resources exploitation would be
carried out, by which arrangements a total of backwater distance of
39 km, 1,867 ha of arable land and two county seats were saved from
being submerged, and consequently 85,000 people no longer had to be
relocated. The State encourages orderly exploitation of hydropower
resources, and has reset the energy development strategy and the
electricity development principle from "actively developing" to
"orderly developing" hydropower based on ecological
protection.
IX. Environmental Science and
Technology, Industry and Public Participation
China attaches great importance to and consistently seeks to
enhance the support capability of science and technology for
environmental protection, actively promotes the industrialization
of environmental protection, and has adopted various measures to
encourage public participation in this regard.
-- Environmental protection scientific research. During
the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, the State has organized and
conducted the national key "water pollution control technology and
treatment project," carried out research and development of such
model programs as lake pollution control and ecological recovery,
quality improvement of urban water environment, drinking water
security safeguard and newly developed waste-water treatment
project, thus providing practical technological plans and
supportive technological systems for water pollution prevention and
control. A batch of environmental monitoring technologies and
equipment has been developed, and many applied. The research and
development of such pilot programs as motor-vehicle emission
purification, desulphurization of gas discharged by coal-fueled
boilers, disposal of solid wastes, clean production of key sectors
and other key technologies have been conducted, and a group of high
and new technologies and equipment have been developed with
independent intellectual property rights. The "research on
countermeasures against significant environmental issues and
relevant key supportive technologies" has been listed in the
State's key scientific and technological plans; research is under
way regarding environmental protection strategy and technological
policy, the theory of cyclical economy and ecological industrial
technology, chemicals control technology, and polluted site
recovery technology, and a green GDP accounting framework has
roughly taken shape. The government has carried out research on
comprehensive ecological system assessment, ecological functional
zoning, and the recovery and reconstruction of the frail ecological
zones in the western part of the country, thus shaping up a variety
of treatment technology patterns and a mechanism for large-scale
demonstration and popularization in those zones. The country has
also completed its survey of alien invasive species, and set up a
biodiversity database. It has formulated the State Environment and
Health Action Plan, and conducted surveys on environment and health
in key areas. It has actively conducted research on global
environmental changes, and worked out the State Assessment Report
on Climate Changes, which provides a scientific basis for the State
to formulate policies to cope with global environmental changes and
participate in the negotiation on relevant international
conventions.
-- Environmental protection industry. After years of
practice, China has formed an industrial system of environmental
protection with a basically complete category and certain economic
scale, and made considerable progress in the production of
environmentally-friendly products and related services, as well as
comprehensive utilization of resources and clean technology
products. By the end of 2004, China had 11,623 enterprises, each
with an annual sales income of more than 2 million yuan, from the
environmental protection industry, employing a total of 1.595
million workers. The entire industry generated 457.21 billion yuan
in revenue and 39.39 billion yuan in profits.
-- Public participation. The Chinese government has
endeavored to boost public participation in environmental
protection. The Environmental Impact Assessment Law requires public
participation in the work, and demands appraisal meetings or
hearings be held or other forms be taken for any plan or
construction project that may cause an unfavorable impact on the
environment to collect the opinions of the relevant authorities,
experts and the public on the EIA report. In February 2006, the
environmental authorities released the Provisional Measures for
Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment, which
clearly stipulates the scope, procedure and form of organization
regarding public participation. Non-governmental organizations and
volunteers are an important force in public participation. There
are now more than 1,000 such organizations in China.
-- Publicity and education. To strengthen the publicity
and education of environmental protection, the State has formulated
the National Action Program for Environmental Publicity and
Education (1996-2010) and the 2001-2005 National Program for
Environmental Publicity and Education Work. The Fourth Five-Year
Plan of Legislation Publicity, commencing in 2001, has made the
publicity and education concerning laws and regulations on
environmental protection a major part of the national legislation
publicity and education drive, and included the publicity of those
laws and regulations in the annual legislation publicity plan.
Every June 5, World Environment Day, various activities are held
across the country, publicizing protection of the environment.
Neighborhoods, schools and families are encouraged to make
themselves environmentally-friendly. So far, the drive has gathered
the support of 2,348 neighborhoods and 25,000 primary and middle
schools, secondary vocational schools and kindergartens, and 100
model families have been elected. Special programs tailored for
young boys and girls, such as "Mother River Protection Operation,"
"Green Promise," "Environmental Action Every Day" and "Ecological
Monitor," are launched to give them moral education in
eco-environment and make them more aware of the importance of
environmental protection. The Green China Forum and the China
Environment Culture Festival and other similar activities are held
to provide knowledge about the environment to the public and guide
their discussions and participation in building a green home.
-- Making information on the environment known to the
public. By the end of 2005, all cities at the prefecture level
or above had realized automatic monitoring and daily report of air
quality. The quality of water is monitored in key river valleys,
and monthly reports of the water quality in ten major river valleys
and weekly reports of automatic monitoring results are released.
Monitoring of the water quality of the eastern section of the
South-North Water Diversion Project is conducted regularly. The 113
cities under special environmental protection are now making
monthly reports of the quality of the source of centralized
drinking water supply. A system of quarterly analysis of
environmental quality has been put in place to timely release
relevant information. Regular or occasional news conferences are
held by governments and environmental authorities at various levels
to report on environmental conditions, major policies and measures,
unexpected incidents and violation of laws and regulations as a way
to guarantee the public's right to information on environmental
protection and promote their participation in the work.
-- Protection of the environmental rights of the public.
By the end of 2005, the four municipalities directly under the
Central Government, 312 prefecture-level cities, 374 county-level
cities and 677 counties had opened hotlines for environmental
pollution reports, covering 69.4 percent of the administrative
divisions above the county level. Since 2003, the environmental
authorities at various levels have received 1.148 million
complaints on environmental pollution through the hotlines, 97
percent of which have been dealt with, and 80 percent of the people
making such complaints in major cities are satisfied with the
results. Along with the public's increasing awareness of the
importance of protecting the environment and demand for a better
environment, the number of complaints lodged by letter or interview
about infringements on the people's environment-related rights
keeps increasing. From 2001 to 2005, the environmental authorities
across the country received more than 2.53 million letters, 430,000
visits by 597,000 petitioners, accepted and handled 673 proposals
from NPC deputies and 521 motions from members of the CPPCC
National Committee.
X. International Cooperation in
Environmental Protection
China stresses international cooperation in environmental
protection, and is active in conducting relevant activities with
the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations. Over
the years, it has dispatched senior delegates to all the meetings
of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, and the World
Summit on Sustainable Development and its successive preparatory
activities. China and the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) have conducted fruitful cooperation in the fields of
desertification prevention and control, biodiversity protection,
ozone layer protection, clean production, cyclical economy,
environmental education and training, flood prevention and control
on the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, regional sea
action plan, and the global action plan for preventing land-sourced
pollution and protecting the oceans. China has also established,
with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World
Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other international
organizations, effective modes of cooperation. China has actively
participated in the environmental protection and sustainable
development activities under the framework of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC), and attended all the APEC environment
ministerial meetings. China's efforts for environmental protection
have been acknowledged and praised by the international community.
The UNEP, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility
granted the "UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize," "Green Award" and
"Global Environment Leadership Award" to the persons in charge of
China's environment affairs, and the UNEP also awarded the title
"Champion of the Earth" to the leader of the All-China Youth
Federation. By the end of 2005, the UNEP had conferred the "Global
500 Award" on 22 units and six persons in China.
So far, China has acceded to more than 50 international conventions
on environmental protection, and has been active in performing the
obligations stipulated in these conventions, which include the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto
Protocol, the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the
Ozone Layer, the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent
Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in
International Trade, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena
Biosafety Protocol, and the United Nations Convention on Combating
Desertification.
The Chinese government has compiled the State Report of the
People's Republic of China on Sustainable Development and the China
Action Program for Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, and
made clear the key fields and action plans of sustainable
development for the early 21st century. It has approved the China
State Plan on Gradually Eliminating Substances That Deplete the
Ozone Layer, drawn up more than 100 policies and measures in
relation to the protection of the ozone layer, built development
and production bases for products that can substitute
ozone-layer-depleting substances, and other
environmentally-friendly products, and met the phasing-out target
set in the Montreal Protocol. According to a World Bank estimate,
the amount of ozone-layer-depleting substances that China has
eliminated accounts for 50 percent of the total amount eliminated
by all the developing countries. The Chinese government hosted in
Beijing the fifth meeting of the conference of the signatory states
to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and
the 11th meeting of the conference of the signatory states to the
Montreal Protocol, which adopted the Beijing Declaration and
Beijing Amendment, respectively.
China has consolidated and promoted its cooperation with
neighboring countries and regions involved, and actively
participated in the construction of a regional cooperation
mechanism. Together with Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK), it
has established a mechanism for environment ministers to meet to
hold regular policy exchanges and discussions of environmental
issues of common concern. After the launching of the Greater Mekong
Subregion (GMS) Environmental Cooperation mechanism, the first GMS
environment ministers' meeting was successfully held in 2005, which
spelled out the biodiversity conservation corridor program for the
subregion and other cooperative projects. Environmental cooperation
under the mechanisms of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and China (10+1) and ASEAN and China, Japan and the ROK
(10+3) has started. At the proposal of the Chinese government, the
first Environment Ministers' Meeting (EMM) of the Asia-Europe
Meeting (ASEM) was convened in 2002, which released the Chairman's
Statement of ASEM EMM and reached agreement about the basis,
potential and principle of Asia-Europe environmental cooperation,
and defined the key fields and priorities for such cooperation. In
recent years, the China-Europe mechanism of ministerial dialogue on
environmental policy and the meeting mechanism of China-Europe
environment liaison officers have been set up, and the first
China-Arab Cooperation Conference on the Environment was held
earlier this year.
China has been active in bilateral cooperation in environmental
protection. It has signed bilateral agreements or memorandums of
understanding on such cooperation with the United States, Japan,
Canada, Russia and 38 other countries, and signed bilateral
agreements or memorandums of understanding on nuclear security
cooperation with 11 countries. It has made considerable progress in
its wide exchanges and cooperation with others regarding
environment policies and regulations, pollution prevention and
control, biodiversity protection, climate change, sustainable
production and consumption, capacity construction, model projects,
environmental technology and environmental industries. In addition,
it has carried out several environmental cooperation programs with
the European Union, Japan, Germany, Canada and nine other countries
or international organizations with bilateral assistance gratis.
China is also active in environmental cooperation and exchanges
with developing countries. To support the follow-up action of the
China-Africa Cooperation Forum, China has sponsored the thematic
activity of China's Environmental Protection Oriented Towards
Africa. In 2005, China and the UNEP jointly hosted China-Africa
Environment Cooperation Conference, and the Chinese government has
organized courses of Workshop on Water Pollution and Water
Resources Management for African Countries, helping African
countries with environmental training.
Conclusion
The Chinese government and the Chinese people have made great
efforts to protect the environment. But the Chinese government is
fully aware of the grave situation of environmental protection in
China, because the country is now at a stage of accelerated
industrialization and urbanization when the contradiction between
economic growth and environmental protection is particularly
prominent. In some regions environmental pollution and ecological
deterioration are still very serious. The discharge of major
pollutants has surpassed the sustaining capacity of the
environment. Water, land and soil pollution is serious, and
pollution caused by solid wastes, motor vehicle emission and not
easily degradable organic matter is increasing. In the first 20
years of the new century, China's population will keep growing, and
its total economic volume will quadruple that of 2000. As the
demand on resources from economic and social development is
increasing, environmental protection is facing greater pressure
than ever before.
Facing the mounting pressure on resources and the environment, the
Chinese government has set forth the idea of taking the scientific
outlook on development as the guiding principle for overall
economic and social development. It calls for China to quicken its
pace of building a resources-efficient, environmentally-friendly
society, and to promote the harmonious development of man and
nature. The Chinese government has placed resources saving and
environmental protection in an important strategic position as it
works out the country's development goals. In the 11th Five-Year
Program for Economic and Social Development (2006-2010), China has
clearly set forth its main goals for environmental protection for
the next five years: By 2010, while the national economy will
maintain a relatively stable and fast growth, the environmental
quality of key regions and cities will be improved, and the trend
toward ecological deterioration will be brought under control.
Energy consumption per unit of GDP will decline by 20 percent
compared with the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. The total
amount of major pollutants discharged will be reduced by ten
percent, and forest coverage will be raised from 18.2 percent to 20
percent.
To achieve these goals, the Chinese government will make sure that
the tasks to prevent and control water and air pollution are
completed. It will strengthen the environmental protection of urban
and rural areas and the protection of the eco-environment and
ensure the safety of the nuclear and radioactive environments. It
will undertake the key tasks of building national environmental
protection projects and promote environmental protection work in an
all-round way. The Chinese government will mobilize all forces
available to solve the pollution problems that are causing serious
harm to people's health. Its overriding task in the control and
prevention of environmental pollution is to ensure that people have
access to safe drinking water. It will take the most stringent
measures to dispel potential risks of pollution of the sources of
drinking water.
To achieve this goal, the Chinese government will actively speed up
"three changes": First, change from emphasizing economic growth but
ignoring environmental protection to emphasizing both environmental
protection and economic growth; second, change from environmental
protection lagging behind economic growth to synchronizing
environmental protection and economic growth; and third, change
from mainly employing administrative measures in environmental
protection to comprehensive use of legal, economic, technical and
necessary administrative measures to solve environmental problems.
Economic, social and cultural systems will be established featuring
stable economic growth, minimal cost to environmental resources and
high awareness of the environment. As regards spatial distribution,
economic growth and the sustaining capacity of the environment will
be coordinated to form development patterns with their own
characteristics. The functions of different regions will be clearly
defined according to different requirements: whether it is a
preferential development region, a key development region, a
limited development region or a region where development is
prohibited. Then different regions will work out their own
development directions and goals for environmental protection. The
Chinese government will make sure that the environment is
effectively protected in the course of development, and that
protective measures will in turn promote development. It will
adhere to a policy of safe, clean and resources-efficient
development so as to realize a sustainable development.
To achieve this goal, the Chinese government will stick to the
principle of all-round development with breakthroughs in key areas.
It will emphasize the principle of prevention first, and control
pollution in a comprehensive manner. It will continue working to
improve policies and legislation on environmental protection, and
strictly supervise their implementation. Management of the
environment will be strengthened according to law. Local
governments' legal obligations for environmental quality will be
reinforced. Environmental access will be tightened. Evaluation of
the impact of planning and important decisions on the environment
will be strengthened, so that environmental pollution and
ecological destruction can be prevented right from the sources. It
will make greater efforts to control pollution of key drainage
areas, rivers, cities and offshore sea areas, and effectively
improve the environmental quality there. Financial input will be
increased by improving the system of government, enterprises and
the general public investing in and financing environmental
protection. It will encourage people to participate in
environmental protection, and strengthen supervision by the people.
China will establish an advanced environmental monitoring and
early-warning system, and a sound environmental law enforcement and
supervision system in an effort to enhance its early-warning
capability in case of environmental emergencies, and to improve its
all-round environmental supervision and management
capabilities.
The importance of protecting the global environment has become
the common understanding of people all over the world. China is a
big, responsible developing country. Solving China's environmental
problems is in keeping with China's development goals. It will
contribute to the wellbeing of the 1.3 billion Chinese people, and
it is also an important manifestation of the shared interest of
mankind. The Chinese government and the Chinese people will join
all other governments and peoples in the world in protecting the
Earth -- our beautiful home.
(China.org.cn June 5, 2006)
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