Environmental Protection in China: The issues of enforcement

Abstract

Environmental Protection in China is an issue which is gaining attention globally and locally. It seems the most prominent problems lie in the implementation and enforcement of the legislation and regulation, which is set up in a decentralised manner. This means that local governments and Environmental Protection Bureaus are responsible for the actual controls and implementation. The EPBs face several considerable problems in the fulfilling of their tasks. Firstly they generally have very few resources to work with, leading to understaffed bureaus and a lack of knowledgeable workforce. Secondly, the EPBs are dependent on the local governments for a part of their financial resources, which can potentially lead to subjective enforcement. At the same time the EPBs are dependent on the companies in their controls, as controls occur on the basis of invitation only. These problems lead to a controlling body that is impaired in its functioning. It is difficult for the EPBs to fulfil the task they are responsible for, which means that the incentives for environmental protection are low. If this situation remains unchanged the industry is unlikely to make major changes in their process to protect the environment. To ensure environmental protection in China it thus seems necessary to make the first changes in this area, and to enable EPBs to do their work effectively and objectively.