China Environmental Law Blog is on the move. I found the WordPress hosting site to be a very easy way to get started, but WordPress sites are not accessible in China. I’ve got my own domain now, and I have learned more about coding than I ever wanted to learn, but I think I’m ready to [...]
Entries from March 2008
March 14, 2008
Watch this space for details
I’m about ready to roll out my new site which should be accessible to those of you located in China. I’ve been spending a lot of time getting it up and running, with little time to actually write. I promise I will be on line tomorrow with the new site. Now I’m off to a presentation [...]
March 13, 2008
The Green Dragon Media Project
My friends Caroline, Max and River have produced a remarkable documentary film about sustainable development in China. During the summer of 2007 they traveled to nine cities along China’s rapidly developing eastern seaboard from Harbin in the north to Shenzhen in the south. Their goal was “to investigate common misconceptions about the potential for mass-scale sustainable [...]
March 12, 2008
“Change you can believe in”
No, I don’t mean the fact that the new “Ministry of Environment” is being billed as a “super” ministry. That’s good news, but don’t get too excited; nothing’s changed, except the “super” tag, since my last post on this topic. The change I’m talking about is a move to a different site that should be accessible [...]
March 11, 2008
China’s Environmental Laws & a Fish Tale
When I tell people in the US that I practice (within the parameters of the regulations set by the MOJ for registered foreign lawyers) environmental law in China, some bonehead always says “That must be easy — China doesn’t have any environmental laws, does it?” Oh to have been blessed with the comedic touch. Lest [...]
March 10, 2008
. . . and throw away the key.
. . . and throwaway the
key. I reported earlier that
the penalty provisions of
the new amendments to
the Water Pollution
Prevention and Control
Law imposed a fine of 50%
of a “directly responsible”
persons’ annual
salary. As noted, these
fines may not have the
desired deterrent effect.
There are effective
deterrents to
environmental accidents
(note SEPA seems focused
on “accidents,” which are
admittedly more high
profile, but probably less
cumulative damaging than
chronic, routine
exceedances of pollutant
limits; limiting “accidents”
was one of the rationales
for the “green” insurance
proposal discussed below)
already on the books. Look
at this bone chilling
provision (Article 338) from
China&rsquo
March 9, 2008
Housetree
Old tree grows out of living
room Adjust font size:
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Guo
Zhongping and his wife Wu
Zuyan, both 78, have a
special decoration for their
living room, a over 20-
meter tall honey locust
that pierces through the
ceiling. This photo, taken
on March 2, shows a huge
tree growing out of the
living room in a farmer’s
home in Qunying village of
Shiquan County in Shanxi
Province. [Photo: Xinhua]
The tree with a trunk that’s
about one-meter in
diameter stands right in
the middle of the room and
its crown spreads over the
house, which is in Qunying
village of Shiquan County
in Shanxi Province. In 1980
March 8, 2008
Do you have this insurance in green?
Most of the stories about China in the Chinese English-language news services have all the analysis and objectivity of a press release. The articles concerning the recent introduction of China’s “green insurance system” by SEPA were no exception. Did any reporter consider asking “what’s so ‘green’ about industrial accident insurance?” It’s no greener than your [...]
March 7, 2008
Water Pollution Act Amendments (Penalty Box) (Part II)
As I mentioned in my previous post on this topic, the as-passed version of the amendments to the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law assesses penalties for “intentional,” i.e. not accidental, exceedances of discharge standards based on a multiple of the applicable “discharge fee” (up to a maximum of 5x this amount). The comment draft [...]
March 6, 2008
Green Listing (Part II)
In touting the new environmental reporting obligations for listed companies (see last post), Pan Yue noted that “of all listed companies on the mainland, only half included environment performance in their 2006 annual reports. Even for those which did touch on the issue, the quality of reporting was generally poor and cannot help shareholders.” I [...]
