The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Monday started its first reading of a draft amendment to the Environmental Protection Law.
"The Environmental Protection Law, which went into effect in 1989, was created during the primary stage of China's reform and opening-up and does not yet fit current economic and social requirements," said Wang Guangtao, chairman of the NPC's Environment and Resources Protection Committee.
From 1995 to 2011, the NPC received a total of 78 proposals to revise the law, Wang said at a bimonthly legislative session that will be held from Monday to Friday.
According to Wang, the draft highlights the government's responsibility and liability in the environmental protection as well as the improvement of environmental management regulations, the improvement of the country's environmental quality and the enterprises' responsibility in pollutant prevention and control.
The draft adds a clause that calls for governments and environmental protection departments to release information concerning environmental quality, pollution-related accidents and the collection and use of pollutant discharge fees to the public, as well as allows the public to request related information.
Moreover, since the discrepancies among the environmental data released by different governmental departments on a same subject have caused some negative effects, a national system will be established to streamline the environmental monitoring and evaluation practices and ensure the consistency of the data, the draft says.
