Assessment and Accountability: Specific Rules

“Lowering the PM 2.5 index has become a mandatory target of every local government that has signed a letter of responsibility with the State Council,” Wang Jian, deputy director of the Department of Pollution Prevention and Control under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, stated. “For those who fail to meet the target, the environmental department will arrange a meeting with the provincial government, heads of related departments, and the organization and monitoring departments.” The Action Plan outlines detailed regulations on assessment and accountability to ensure all tasks are implemented.

“Inviting the organization department of local CPC committees to participate in the assessment is breaking new ground,” said Wang Jian. The assessment result is one of the key indexes of the effectiveness of local governments and officials. Those who fail to effectively cope with air pollution or meet the annual goal, or hinder or forge monitoring data will be held accountable and duly punished.

“The participation of the organization department is a clear signal to the local government,” said Zhang Xiaoye, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, “these rigorous measures will make it possible to realize the final target.”

As one of the most polluted cities, Beijing will promulgate a local statute on air pollution prevention and control within the year. The draft has been brought to the Fifth Session of the 14th Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People’s Congress. This will be the first local statute of this type. It is revealed that the statute cancels the maximum fine of RMB 1 million for polluters. Instead the fine will start from the day the pollution is detected to the day that it is deemed under control. It will be calculated on a daily basis and there will be no ceiling.

The document also provides that egregious transgression of environmental laws will be prosecuted under criminal law according to the related legal explanation of offences against environmental protection made by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

A Protracted War

The Action Plan has been actively applied in various places. On the same day that the plan was published, Beijing released its own specific targets: to decrease PM 2.5 concentration by five percent every year; to keep the total number of motor vehicles within six million; to largely reduce the use of coal and replace it with electricity and natural gas; to develop public transport, extending rail transit mileage to 660 km by 2015; to improve and rectify small polluting companies, closing down 1,200 of the most polluting companies by the end of 2016; and to plant a million mu of forest by the end of 2016, which will cover over 60 percent of the city by 2017. These are the most comprehensive, systematic, detailed and forceful measures ever undertaken in Beijing.

In fact, Beijing has taken drastic action since 1998. Over 200 measures have been implemented in restricting four air pollution sources – coal, motor vehicles, construction sites and industry. Many measures have been widely accepted, such as scrapping old cars ahead of schedule and encouraging the public not to drive for one day per week.

Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, facing equally severe air pollution, have also implemented related policies and measures. Tianjin recently issued The Outline for Beautiful Tianjin, which stipulates that the annual PM 2.5 concentration should decrease by 20 percent by 2016 compared to 2012, and decrease by another five percent by 2017.

Hebei has adopted a 50-point implementation plan, of which a reduction in coal consumption is the most important. It plans to decrease the concentration of PM 2.5 by no less than 30 percent by 2017. The provincial capital Shijiazhuang announced that as of 2015, the PM 2.5 concentration will decrease by 15 percent compared with 2013, and decrease by 30 percent by the end of 2017.

Domestic media have also reported many actions taken by other provinces and cities. However, Chai Fahe points out that air pollution prevention and control is a long-term process. China is faced with a situation that developed countries have never faced in the 21st century. We should be fully aware of the difficulties of the task ahead, and prepare for a protracted war against pollution.