Law to Curb Air PollutionThe law on the prevention and control of atmospheric pollution, first adopted in 1987 and amended in 1995, was once again revised recently.The time span between the two revisions are surprisingly short. The major reason behind that is because the discharge of air pollutants across China still remains high, constituting a grave obstacle to the national sustainable economic development and people's health. At present, there are 668 cities in China with total population over 400 million. Among 300 cities covered by environmental statistics, the air quality level of more than 70 per cent of the cities are ranked as class 3, indicating slight pollution, or above. This figure shows that atmospheric pollution is grim and prevailing in China. The newly modified law spells out regulations for all the cities to control air pollution and demands that key cities improve atmospheric environment according to a time schedule. According to the new law, the governments of those cities can adopt more stringent measures to reach the national air quality standards on time. No heat engine plants should be built in the urban areas. Motorized vehicles are another major pollution source.In many big cities, the atmospheric pollutants discharged by vehicles are the dominant source of pollution. In Beijing, it is estimated that 74 per cent of hydrocarbon and 63 per cent of nitrogen oxide in the air comes from motorized vehicles. To reinforce the control of pollution caused by vehicles, the new law has an independent chapter to list regulations covering vehicle manufacturing, utilization and maintenance, gasoline quality, supervision and examination. Several sandstorms this spring have alarmed the public of dust pollution. The law demands governments at all levels to double efforts in afforestation and urban greening and to control the dust pollution caused by construction sites. However, strict stipulations for control of air pollution is not enough. The new law has incorporated regulations that encourage the introduction and popularization of new technology and management that are environmentally friendly. Despite the detailed stipulations and obligations, the aim of the legislation will be missed if there is no specified enforcement department to carry out the law. In view of this, the new law has made headway in the law enforcement area. Excessive discharge of pollutants has been clearly defined as an illegal practice. The former law had only stipulated that any enterprise that discharged pollutants should pay a fee for excessive discharge. The new law makes it clear that the offender should pay a fine ranging from 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) to 100,000 yuan (US$12,100). The new law also has established a total volume control system and pollutants discharge certificate system. The present air law was drafted based on the concentration of pollutants. Yet the current situation is that in many densely-populated industrial areas, the quality of atmospherical environment is already miserable. Although individual pollution sources may attain the standards, the deterioration of air quality cannot be reversed if the overall volume stays at its high levels. It is inevitable to promote total volume control. According to the new air law, steps should be taken to gradually reduce the volume of pollutants emitted into the air. The amount of pollutants discharged by enterprises should be verified and a pollutants certification system should be established. The enterprise should observe the conditions set in the certificate. Because the present charges for excessive pollutants emission is rather low, many enterprises are willing to pay the fees in order to escape the obligations for pollution treatment. The total volume levy system in the new law has effectively avoided the above cases and the new law has forbidden excessive discharge of pollutants. |
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