Environment Geophysics on Environmental protection in China

Currently, research on environmental safety and environmental protection in China is dominated by scientists of the branch of legal science, but it is difficult to form a holistic point of view on environmental protection to a certain extent within the framework of thinking of the branch of legal science. It is necessary to find a more perfect concept that will replace the concept of “legal system”, and such a concept is the “regulatory system”. The authors introduce a new concept of “environmental protection of the environment” into scientific use.The article shows that in terms of the composition of the regulatory system, environmental protection in modern China has formed a relatively stable three-dimensional regulatory system, that is, a multifaceted regulatory system. The authors reveal the dominant trends in the development of the system of legal regulation of environmental protection and environmental safety in China.

중국은 20세기 중반 환경영역, 민주주의 정치영역 그리고 환경법학 영역에서 일련의 큰 변화들을 경험하였다. 이러한 변화들은 공중참여가 환경보호의 필연적인 선택이 될 수 있도록 촉구하였다. 1960년대 말부터 시작되어 날로 고조되어 가는 환경보호 운동으로 인하여 환경문제는 인류사회가 보편적으로 관심을 가지는 주제가 되었고 공중참여는 점차 행정영역으로 들어왔으며 새로운 공중참여운동을 일으켰다. 즉 정책수립과 결정과정에서 시민의 참여를 중시하고 정책집행 과정에서도 시민의 참여를 강조하게 되었으며, 이러한 참여는 더 이상 “엘리트”들만의 참여가 아닌 일반시민의 참여를 뜻한다는 점에서 이전과 상당히 다른 양상을 띠게 되었다. 70년대 초에 이르러서는 세계 많은 나라들의 환경규제의 주된 흐름은 ‘명령-규제(命令-控制)’방식이었고 이러한 방식은 환경오염을 규제함에 있어서 효과적이었다. 그러나 인류의 환경보호 의식이 나날이 향상되고 정부의 직능(职能)이 변화됨에 따라 환경문제는 다시 두드러졌고 80년대에 이르러서는 명령－규제방식의 환경통치수단은 더 이상 경제와 환경의 조화로운 발전을 실현할 수 없게 되었다. 비록 많은 나라들에서 환경법에 환경권에 대한 규정을 두고 있지만 90년대에 이르기까지 환경권의 실체성은 제대로 보장받지 못하고 있었다. 이로 인하여 90년대 이후로 국제사회에서 환경입법은 공중의 환경 정보권, 환경 참여권, 환경 구제권에 초점을 맞추어 이루어졌다. 1988년 UN의 유럽경제위원회가 덴마크의 오르후스에서 통과한 《오르후스협약》은 환경보호 공중참여권에 대하여 가장 완벽하게 규정한 국제 환경입법이다. 그러나 중국 《환경보호법》에서 이와 관련된 제도의 규정을 살펴보면 매우 부족하고 대부분의 환경입법은 제대로 작용하지 못하고 있다. 본 논문에서는 공중참여의 정의, 주요내용, 이론적 기초를 상세하게 분석하고 평가하며 현재 중국의 환경보호 공중참여에 관련된 입법규정과 구체적인 실천과정을 살펴보고 공중의 환경 정보권, 환경 참여권, 환경 구제권에 대하여 고찰하며 궁극적으로는 중국의 현재 환경보호 집행부재의 현황에 비추어 중국의 환경보호 공중참여권의 법적보장체계에 대한 개선에 대하여 논의하는 것이 본 연구의 목적이다.In mid-20th century, a series of changes have taken place in the area of environment, democracy and environmental law. Such changes have promoted public participation, which is deemed an inevitable choice in the field of environmental protection. From the late 1960s’, because of the growing environmental protection movements, environmental problems have attracted much attention of human society as a whole. Public participation has exerted much influence on the administrative field, and accordingly, new public participation movement was launched. Much emphasis is put on public participation in the stages of policy formulation and policy implementation. Such participation in a modern sense differs from that in the previous era, as it refers to the participation of the general public, not of the small group of “elites.” In the early 1970’s, many countries employed the “command-control” system of environmental regulation; and this method functioned well in limiting environmental pollution. However, with the heightened environmental protection consciousness and the change of government function, the environmental issues again received much attention. In the 1980’s, the means of environmental control which followed “command and control” model was found not so effective in achieving the coordinated development of economic growth and the environmental protection. Although environmental laws of many countries did have provisions on environmental right, the environmental rights was not fully protected until 1990’s. Therefore, since 1990’s, the international trend in the field of environmental legislation was to focus on the public’s right to have proper information on the environment, the right to participate in the environment issue, the right to environmental relief and so on. The Aarhus convention, which was adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission in Aarhus in 1988, is deemed the most comprehensive international environmental legislation for the protection of public participation in environment issues. However, the relevant provisions in China’s environmental protection law are far from perfect, and most of the environmental legislation in China do not seem to play its due role. In this paper, I will analyze and further evaluate the definition, main contents, and the basic theories of public participation; then I will introduce relevant statutes and specific process regarding public participation in environmental protection in China, and the environmental information right, environmental participation right, environmental relief right. Later I will analyze present situation of environmental protection in China; I will discuss what China can and should learn from the experience of the Aarhus Convention, focusing on the legal system guaranteeing the public participation in environmental protection.

This article analyses how to combine the internet of things (IOT) with air pollution monitoring. It believes that application of internet of things can resolve air pollution monitoring problems. What the paper analyzes is how the Internet of Things technology effectively applied to the field of environment protection, to improve management of environment monitoring and protection. This paper mainly introduces concepts and architecture system of IOT used in environment monitoring and protection, through analyzing the problems in environment monitoring and protection in China, on the basis of summarizing the experience of IOT used in the field of environment protection in China, further proposes how to promote the development and application of networking technology in monitoring and protection of the environment in China, and focuses on the difficulties, obstacles and solutions which exist in.

ABSTRACTEnergy plays significant role in the protection of national prosperity and economic development. The development and construction of coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) were regarded as an important component of the national energy planning, ecological civilization, national energy security, urban and regional sustainable development, and even atmospheric action. The construction of CFPPs is served as an important contribution to optimizing national energy structure and development. However, CFPPs are mainly located in arid or semi-arid or desert regions in China. The vegetation recovery in these regions is rather difficult than other regions once these ecosystems are disturbed or degraded, so these fragile areas face the more severe risks of ecological environment. These regions also serve as important grain-producing bases in Northern China and as important ecological function areas to nearby major cities, such as, Beijing and Tianjin. Furthermore, the development activities of CFPPs may lead to numerous environmental issues, such as water pollution, soil erosion vegetation degradation, and air pollution. The relationships between environmental issues and CFPP development should thus be regulated from a regional or national perspective. In this study, we analyse the spatial characters of coal resources, discuss the ecological conservation goals and ecological conditions of CFPPs, propose solutions to environmental issues involving ecological protection and CFPP construction, and provide important sustainable development strategies.

Over the years, the development of marine economy has been an important component of coastal cities' total economic growth in China. Whether the coastal cities had paid enough attention to the coordination of marine economic development and ecological environment protection in the process of marine development activities needed to be evaluated accordingly. An index evaluation system for the coordination between marine ecological environment protection and marine economic development in coastal cities of China was established in this work by using the analytic hierarchy process. The statistical analysis results from 2006 to 2018 showed that much more attention had been paid on marine ecological environment protection since the year 2012 in China. The evaluated results showed that among all coastal provinces and cities, Shanghai and Shandong Provinces had the best coordination between marine economic development and marine ecological environment protection in the year 2016. Years of data showed that marine economic development and marine ecological environmental protection complement each other and promote each other. At the same time, the analysis results of this indicator evaluation system showed that marine ecological environment protection in China should further strengthen the protection by preventing and controlling marine pollution and carrying out ecological restoration.

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.

Since the reform and opening up, China has been adhering to the extensive economic growth model, which has led to serious environmental damage, energy depletion, global warming and environmental pollution and other environmental problems have been increasingly prominent. The root of environmental problems lies in external diseconomy. Environmental pollution has obvious negative external effects, as environmental resources are public goods, enterprises will not increase their own costs in using or consuming public goods, but the society has to bear the marginal cost in providing the goods, which will lead to the inconsistency between social cost and private cost, thus causing excessive damage to the domestic environment. In the past, our country mainly governs by administrative means, and the shortcomings such as high management cost and poor effect in the implementation process are increasingly obvious. Combined with the treatment process of environmental pollution in western countries, economic measures have a good effect on the external diseconomy of environmental problems. According to the current environmental problems and governance status in China, environmental governance means in urgent need of transformation. Based on the literature, this paper analyzes the current situation of environmental pollution in China and the mechanism of economic means in environmental protection, puts forward the means of environmental governance and protection from the economic level, and discusses the future direction of environmental governance.

Environment and Health in China: Challenges and Opportunities

With the rise of environmentalism in China, great efforts have been devoted to environmental protection over the past several decades. Compared with urban environmental protection, rural environmental protection has not been attached enough importance in China due to the dual-track structure of socio-economic development. As a result, rural China is shouldering disproportionally heavy environmental burdens partly because of the differences and biases between urban and rural environmental protection seen in environmental policies, environmental rights and interests, environmental protection investment, and the environmental protection awareness of people. To eliminate the gap between rural and urban environmental protection, and achieve the goal of “balanced urban-rural environmental protection” (BUREP), government should consider mapping out proper policies and strategies. In this paper we put forward an innovative strategy of BUREP against the background of China’s urban-rural environmental protection. First, we review the current status of rural environmental protection status and its challenges compared with urban environmental protection in China. Secondly, we analyzed the main driving factors and reasons deeply, and then we put forward the BUREP strategy base on the unequal status between urban and rural environment. Finally, we proposed the framework of BUREP. This study may serve as a scientific reference regarding decision-making in coordinating urban and rural environmental protection and in constructing the new countryside of China.

Previous study found out that Chinese household have a higher awareness of environmental protection but less positive initiative to protect the environment. With the increasing Chinese income, higher education, and changing environment state, public awareness and behavior on environment protection are changing. This paper tries to find out the current public willingness to participate in environment protection, by using the latest data from China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) which is investigated in 2017 that covered 31 provinces with a sample of more than 40 thousand households. Besides, logit regression model is adopted to find out the impact of pollution and household demographic on environment protection behavior. The results show that around 71.6% of surveyed households have willingness to pay for the environment protection. Rural residents and higher educated individuals are more likely to participate in environment protection. However, things are different if they face different degrees of pollution. Results can be explained with China's current economic situation and would have some implications for future study on China's public willingness to pay for the environment.

Driven by economic development, the dramatic increase in carbon emissions has led to global warming and a series of environmental problems. The question of how to ensure harmonized coordination between economic development, carbon emissions and environmental protection has become increasingly important. The conflicts between the use of energy and emission reductions in China have become more intense. It is an inevitable requirement for China’s sustainable development to promote a low-carbon circular economy and the simultaneous and coordinated development of carbon emissions, the economy and the environment. The present study took 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions directly under the Central Government) as the research objects (Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are not included in the study due to the lack of relevant data), and applied quantitative analysis methods, such as three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, coupling coordination degree models and spatial analysis models, to construct a measurement index system. On the basis of the measurement of its carbon emission efficiency, the level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection at both spatial and temporal dimensions was analyzed comprehensively in order to reveal its temporal and spatial characteristics. The conclusions are as follows: (1) China’s overall carbon emission efficiency displayed a gradual upward trend, although the overall level was not that high. Therefore, there is still much scope for further improvement. (2) The level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection showed a steady yet rising trend. All provinces reached different levels of coordination development, and there was no province that displayed a disorderly declining trend. However, the number of provinces that reached or went beyond the intermediate level of coordination development was quite limited. (3) The level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection displayed obvious spatial aggregation patterns at the provincial level, showing an apparent spatial dependence and heterogeneity. Over time, the level of spatial aggregation patterns in regard to coordination degree tended to weaken. Overall, the values were high in the eastern region and low in the western region, decreasing from the eastern coastal zone towards the western inland zone, thus demonstrating a contrasting east-west spatial distribution pattern.

During the last decades, especially the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, China vocational education on environmental protection has made remarkable progresses. The vocational education on environmental protection has developed fast and spread widely, and formed an integrity system with various kinds of types. On the basis of analyzing the development status of vocational education in the field of China environmental protection and the cooperative mechanism and operative mode of production, teaching, research and application of partial higher vocational environmental education and environmental majors at home, this paper describes the history and development of vocational education on environmental protection in China and conducted a case study of vocational education on Changsha Environmental Protection Vocational College (CEPVC). The purpose is to identify lessons from past experience in vocational education to inform future development. The retrospective nature of this paper focuses attention on what has been done in the past, and to a lesser extent on the nature of current state. There are significant issues in vocational education, for example, the contribution of training to informal sector employment, that fall largely outside of vocational education experience, this is important for the future.

Thirty years have passed since the Standing Committee of National People's Congress approved in principle China's first laws on environmental protection on September 13, 1979. During those thirty years, China developed modern environmental laws from the ground up, creating an independent area of law that holds an important position in national legal system. This rapid development is due in part to the seriousness of China's environmental problems and the urgency with which these problems must be addressed, as well as an inevitable result of progression of China's legal system. The Environmental Protection Law played an important role in development of Chinese environmental law and had a far-reaching influence on environmental rule of law. First, the enactment of the law provided a legal foothold for environmental protection in China. Secondly, it provided a legal basis for the establishment of environmental protection institutions as well as outlining what their duties would be. Keywords: China; environmental laws; environmental protection institutions; environmental protection law; legal system; National People's Congress

Development and Environmental Protection in China

Up until now, Japan's environmental cooperation with China has principally been in response to requests by the Chinese government, with Japan making major contributions in the areas of environmental policy, human resource development, and environmental management systems, and the construction of physical infrastructure. Unlike some other Western donors, Japan is heavily engaged in resolving various environmental problems throughout the whole of China, and these contributions will continue to play a powerful role in improving China's environment for many years to come. Moreover, Japan has also made a major contribution to the raising of environmental awareness among the general public throughout China, and has been instrumental in empowering Chinese environmental citizen's groups. Specifically, Japan has been providing the Chinese government with yen loans and technical cooperation, and has supplied it with many new concepts and mechanisms in the areas of environmental policy, management systems and physical infrastructure, as well. Japan has also provided a foundation for the development of China's environmental industry by means of technology transfer and human resources development. By supplying grant aid to different parts of China, Japan has played a pioneering role in the field of environmental protection in China, enabling the expansion of training and educational facilities and programs to which the Chinese government failed, due to putting a premium on a high economic growth, to allocate sufficient budget despite its awareness of the gravity of the problems that it faces. NGO environmental cooperation programs that use Japanese government grassroots and NGO grant aid and assistance of the Japan Fund for Global Environment have been highly significant factors in the resolution at the regional level of the serious environmental problems that have arisen throughout China. The role that these have played in intensifying exchanges and friendly relations at the grassroots level between Japan and the Chinese people has been highly commendable. In particular, environmental cooperation programs with China through the ten-year-old Sino-Japan Friendship Centre for Environmental Protection (SJC) have not been confined solely to solving China's environmental problems, and have accordingly helped to build a foundation for environmental cooperation with China's various neighbors and thus helped to enhance China's standing internationally.