Yang Chaofei, a State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) official said recently that China plans to revise the Environmental Protection Law so that it will provide stronger punishment for violators.

China's economic growth should not be at the expense of the environment, Yang said at the 2007 JP Morgan Chase conference. Yang is the head of the rule and regulation department under SEPA.

According to Yang, China is facing increasing environmental pressure. China's factories spewed out 25.5 million tons of sulphur dioxide--the chemical that causes acid rain--in 2005, up 27% from 2000.

Acid rain remained a serious problem, particularly in the eastern Zhejiang Province where all the cities monitored suffered from acid rain, according to the country's environment watchdog.

The government adopted stronger measures in 2006 to control sulphur dioxide discharges. Although the rise is slowing down, it hasn't ended.

"China lacks an environmental law that disciplines and supervises government behavior. Many laws are to restrain enterprises, not the governments," Yang said.

The law amendment is to keep the government within bound, and punish law violators. Some articles on civil reparations will be added to make the law easy to be enforced.

He said it's too little to fine only a 1 million yuan in accordance with the current law for the accident that happened in November 2005 when a benzene plant exploded that seriously polluted the Songhuajiang River. The Jilin Chemical and Petroleum plant belongs to Sinopec.

China sets a general target to improve environmental quality in cities and regions so as to stem ecological deterioration.

Two compulsory targets have been set: to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent; reduce major pollutant discharge by 10 percent. Other goals are to reduce water consumption per unit of industrial added value by 30 percent, and increase forest coverage by 20 percent.

Approximately 500 billion yuan is scheduled to be invest in 10 environmental protection projects, including construction of environmental monitoring facilities, establishment of centers in 31 provincial capitals nationwide to treat harmful wastes, and founding of centers in 300 larger cities to treat medical wastes.

Environmental sector will cooperate with banks to encourage "green loans" to limit loans on heavy pollution projects.

The environmental watchdog also plans to join hands with insurance institutions to design liability insurance policies for environmental protection and create social remedial systems after serious pollution accidents.

Early this year, the administration stopped 82 projects, involving a total investment of 100 billion yuan, that did not conform to environmental standards.

Yang stated that more investment in environmental projects will have some impact on China's economy but the economy can adjust. "We believe that economic growth should stand at 7 percent, instead of the current 10 percent," he concluded.

(Source: Caijing, translated by Li Yuzhu)