Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook: Technology, Finance, Environmental, and International Guidance and Best Practices

CHAPTER 27

ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT IN CHINA

Wanxin Li, PhD

Krzysztof Michalak

27.1 INTRODUCTION

27.2 PRESSURES ON THE ENVIRONMENT

27.3 LEGAL FRAMEWORK

27.4 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

27.5 ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE PROMOTION

(a) Tools at Disposal of Government

(b) Administrative Discretion by Local EPBs and Governments

(c) Weak Administrative Capacity of Local EPBs

(d) Incentive Mechanisms to Align Interests of Governmental Officials

27.6 COMPLIANCE BY INDUSTRY 387

27.7 RISING PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

27.8 HARMONIOUS SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT

NOTES

REFERENCES

27.1 INTRODUCTION

On April 14, 2006, in his address to the Sixth National Conference on Environmental Protection, Premier Wen Jia-bao of China alerted the country to give environmental protection a higher priority and fight against worsening environmental pollution and ecological deterioration.1 Before the environmental degradation and ecological/economic/health loss became a topic of national focus, China has, since early 1970s, incrementally established the legal and institutional frameworks aiming to control pollution. Enforcement of environmental laws and standards and compliance promotion instruments utilized by government decide, to a large extent, industrial environmental performance and thus national environmental performance. In this chapter, pressures on the environment will first be reviewed, followed by responses from government and society—institutional and legal ...