Pollution Data Uneven Across China

Abstract

Regulations on environmental disclosure adopted by China three years ago have improved the behavior of polluting companies, claims a Beijing-based environmental group. But the new rules are unevenly followed across China, with municipal governments in the eastern part of the country more willing to disclose environmental data than are authorities in the west. In May 2008, the central government in Beijing adopted two regulations that improve public access to official environmental data. One law was implemented by the State Council, China’s top decision-making body. The other was adopted by the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. Among other obligations, cities now have to let citizens see what complaints were filed against companies and what follow-up actions, if any, authorities have taken. Together, the new rules were a “watershed” for transparency on environmental affairs in China, says Jun Ma, director and founder of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), a ...