China
On June 14, state media gave prominent coverage to an air pollution fine imposed on a Sinopec refinery in eastern Anhui province. Although the fine was only 90,000 yuan (US$14,670), according to the 21st Century Business Herald, a report in China Daily said it was unusual that the company was cited at all.
"Experts said the penalty ... marks a victory for local law enforcers in their battle with mammoth state-owned companies, which can have administrative rankings even higher than those of regional governments," the paper reported.
On June 19, the Supreme People's Court and People's Procuratorate issued a joint legal interpretation, promising tougher penalties for environmental crimes. Enforcement "has long been lax and superficial in China", Xinhua said.
The tactic of "naming and shaming" polluters also seems to be part of the central government's strategy, which calls for "heavily polluting companies to publicize environmental data" as one of the 10 steps.
DisclosureDisclosure could prove to be a big step forward. "In China, the factories can just discharge without letting people know," said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, as quoted by The New York Times. "If we can bring them under public supervision, it would make a big difference," said Ma.
Air quality rankings of major cities should also be publicized, the State Council said in its statement. Although some of the measures are new, others like denying bank loans to projects without environmental impact assessments were also ordered years ago. Circumventing the rules has apparently turned into a separate business.
On June 11, central Henan province imposed sanctions on 20 environmental assessment agencies for fraudulent evaluations, Xinhua reported. More serious efforts are underway, however, with the start of the first pilot carbon trading program to reduce global warming gas emission in Shenzhen city of coastal Guangdong province. Beijing and Shanghai are expected to launch similar programs next year, China Daily said.
IEA REPORT
The flurry of announcements comes days after the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) released an advance excerpt from its annual World Energy Outlook, raising alarms about global emissions of greenhouse gases. The IEA found that world emissions are already on track to exceed the danger limit of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) set by the United Nations for additional global warming by the end of the century.
Although emissions growth slowed to the second-lowest rate in a decade last year, more needs to be done, the agency said. The IEA proposed four measures that could be taken through 2020 to keep warming as close as possible to the danger threshold "at no net economic cost".
The recommendations include greater energy efficiency, less use of coal-fired power plants, lower methane emissions from oil and gas production, and an end to fossil fuel subsidies. The IEA gave China's efforts a mixed review, crediting its surge in renewable energy sources for one of the lowest increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the past decade.
Even so, China's carbon dioxide emissions last year rose by 300 million tons, or 50% more than the corresponding reduction by the United States. The report argued that China may have one the world's greatest "no net cost" opportunities for emissions savings, if it can only raise the efficiency of the electric motors used in its industries.