The Environmental Protection Law at China’s environmental legislative system
China’s system of environmental legislation is established based on the Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China that was enacted in 1989. Under this law, other separate laws have been enacted for controlling pollution. Some of these laws are as follows:
China updated the Environmental Protection Law in 2015. This was the first major revisions. The revised law includes stricter punishments on polluters. It also allows non-governmental organizations to file environmental lawsuits against violators. The National People’s Congress revised other laws, including the Law on the Prevention and control of Air Pollution in 2018 and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in 2017. The Congress also adopted the Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution on August 31, 2018.
Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution was enacted in 1987 and amended in 1995, 2000, 2015 and 2018. This Law is formulated in order to prevent and control atmospheric pollution, protect and improve people’s environment and the ecological environment, safeguard human health, and promote the sustainable development of economy and society. The concentration of the discharged pollutants may not exceed the standards prescribed by the State and local authorities. The quality standards for products containing volatile organic compounds, such as coal, petroleum coke, biomass fuel, and coatings, fireworks and firecrackers, boilers, etc., are developed and the atmospheric environment protection requirements are specified.
The environmental legislative framework to protect the air pollution is as follows.
Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution
Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution is formulated in order to prevent and control water pollution, protecting and improving the environment, and safeguarding the safety of drinking water.
The environmental legislative framework to protect the water pollution is as follows.
Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution
Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste is the national primary law governing municipal and industrial waste management. This law lays out basic requirements for solid waste disposal for industrial facilities. It requires the specified facilities to get approval from the local environmental protection bureau for waste disposal plans prior to construction. The bureaus are also responsible for issuing permits for the collection, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.
The environmental legislative framework on waste management is as follows.
Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste
Industrial chemicals are mainly regulated by the following regulations in China:
“Decree of the State Council No 591 Regulations on Safe Management of Hazardous Chemicals”
“Order of the Ministry of Environmental Protection No. 7 Environmental Management of New Chemical Substances”
Pursuant to article 15 of the Decree No 591, manufacturers of hazardous chemicals shall provide safety data sheet on the hazardous chemicals that are produced, post or affix a chemical safety label on the package. The contents in safety data sheet and chemical safety labels should meet the requirements of relevant national standards. The relevant standards in China are as follows:
On April 29, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China (MEE) issued the final Measures on Registrations of New Chemical Substances for Environmental Management under Ministry Order No. 12. The new Measures replaces the current 2010 version and comes into force on January 1, 2021, when the Order No.7 will be repealed.
Same as the current version, the new Measures require manufacturers and importers to register new chemical substances with MEE before placing the new chemical substances on the Chinese market. They also introduce a notification process for new uses of existing listed substances.
Law on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (Revision draft for solicitation of comments)
In order to strengthen the safety management of hazardous chemicals, prevent and reduce hazardous chemical accidents, the Ministry of Emergency Management organized the consultation on the draft of the “Law on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals”, which had been open to the public comments until 1 November, 2020. If approved, it will replace Decree No. 591.
The draft law is applicable to the safety management of the production, storage, use, operation, transportation and disposal of hazardous chemicals. It consists of 11 chapters (Article 137), and based on the lessons learned from the explosion accident, “Safety of hazardous chemical disposal” etc. was added to clarify the responsibility for safety supervision of the disposal (Disposal safety). The State implements a hazardous chemical registration system.
Framework of EHS laws and regulations in China.
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On November 25, 2020, five Chinese government agencies and departments, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, jointly published the National Hazardous Waste List 2021. This revised list takes effect …
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On 16 November, 2020, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment published a revision of the Guidance on New Chemical Substance Environmental Management Registration (Announcement No. 51 of 2020) and relevant …
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On November 6, 2020, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the “Technical Guidelines for Ecological and Environmental Impact Analysis for Economic and Technological Policies (Trial)”. The guideline sets out …
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China Standardization Administration released “Guidelines for enterprises to develop emergency response plan for work place accidents” GB/T 29639-2020 on September 29, 2020. This standard is a revision of the 2013 …
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On 30, Dec 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, and other departments of the …
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On November 6, 2020, State Administration for Market Regulation of China submitted a notification, which is about an enforceable national standard –”Content limitation of mercury, cadmium and lead for zinc …
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China’s State Administration of Market Supervision submitted WTO/TBT notifications on November 6, 2020 on 3 compulsory national standards, including the “Lithium ion cells and batteries used in stationary electronic equipments–Safety …
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On November 2, 2020, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the Management Measures on National Carbon Trading (trial implementation; draft for comments) and Management Measures on Registration, Transactions and …
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Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China released the List of Fifth Batch of Green Manufacturing on October 16, 2020. The list includes 719 green …
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As the only province that implements the pilot project- “Promotion the Consumption of Renewal of Household Appliances by Improving the Waste Household Appliances Recycling and Treatment System”, the government of …
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In October 2020, the Department of Marine Strategic Planning and Economics of the Ministry of Natural Resources released the “2019 National Seawater Report”. The report provides information on seawater utilization …
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On October 26, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China released an announcement on matters related to the transition of registration of environmental management …
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The 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) adopted the CPC Central Committee’s Proposals for the Formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social …
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On November 2, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China published the second List of Priority Chemicals for Regulation. The 18 listed chemical substances are as follows. Number …
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The Ecology and Environment department and Market Supervision and Management Commission of Tianjin, China released a revised regional standard- “Emission Control Standard for Industrial Enterprises Volatile Organic Compounds” (DB12/524-2020) on …
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China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the “Measures on Environmental Management of Hazardous Waste Transfer (revised draft)” on October 23, 2020. The deadline for collecting comments is November 22, …
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On September 18, 2020, Guangdong Province, China released “Guangdong Provincial Measures on Compensation for Ecological and Environmental Damage(Trial)”. The Measures stipulate the work process of the compensation parties, case …
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On October 13, 2020, Ministry of Emergency Management of the Peoples’ Republic of China published “Measures on Hazardous Chemical Enterprises’ Responsibility System for the Safety of Major Hazard Sources (Trial)” …
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On September 28, 2020, in order to implement effective sanctions against discrediting acts in the field of safe production and to improve the current management system for the list of …
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On September 13, 2020, the China National Light Industry Council released the “Guideline for Classification and Label Standard of Biodegradable Plastic Products”, which make a further explanation of the concept …
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China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment published six representative cases of illegal activities related to hazardous waste on its official website on 18 September, 2020. In 2020, from July to …
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On September 22, 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation of China submitted a WTO/TBT notification of a proposed revision to the compulsory National Standard of P.R.C. (GB) called Fuel …
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China’s National Development and Reform Commission released “List of Products Regulated under Water Efficiency Labeling (2nd Batch)” and three related Implementation Rules on October 15, 2020. The three Implementation Rules are …
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On September 29, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China released three draft for comments of technical guidelines, and began to collect opinions. …
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On September 24, 2020, the government of Zhejiang Province, China issued the Regulation of Zhejiang Province on Water Resources. It will come into force on January 1, 2021. The new …
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Ministry of Ecology and Environment of People’s Republic of China released 5 national environmental protection standards (draft for comments), including “Ambient air and waste gas – Determination of acrylic esters …
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On September 23, 2020, State Administration for Market Regulation of China submitted a notification, the proposed compulsory “National Standard of P.R.C., Specification for the Limitation of Harmful Substances Found …
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On September 27, 2020, the Ministry of Emergency Management of China released the first Catalogue of Abolished Outdated Processes and Equipment for Safe Production of Hazardous Chemicals. The public notice …
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On September 22, 2020, State Administration for Market Regulation of China submitted a notification， the “National Standard of the P.R.C., Limits of Certain Heavy Metal in Printing Ink” to WTO/TBT. …
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On September 21, 2020, the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong released the “Catalogue of Plastic Products Restricted and Prohibited …
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On September 11, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China announced the Guidance on Optimization and Improvement of Environmental Protection Enforcement (draft for comments) to collect opinions. …
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On October 2, 2020, Ministry of Emergency Management of China released the “Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China” (Draft for Comments) and opened a call for …
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On August 4, 2020, the Department of Ecology and Environment of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, released the Third List of the Companies in Key Industries That Should Thoroughly …
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On August 15, 2020, the Bureau of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province, China announced the Guidelines for Companies and Public institutions in Guangdong Province on Development of Emergency …
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On July 23, 2020, the Standardization Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation of China announced a revision of the mandatory national standard, the “General Safety Requirements for …
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The Bureau of Ecology and Environment of Shanghai announced a notice about “the revision of the list on emergency emission reductions for severe air pollution days in 2020”, in order …
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On August 26, 2020, China’s Standardization Administration released a proposed revision (a draft for opinion gathering) of the national standard, Minimum Energy Performance Standard and Energy Efficiency Grades for Electric …
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On August 31, 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation of China issued a WTO/TBT notification of a proposed revision of the compulsory national standard (GB), “Gas Storage Water Heater” …
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Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China reported on August 17, 2020 on the use status of the public service platform for the Restriction of the Use of Certain …
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On August 15, 2020, the Bureau of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province, China announced the Guidelines for Companies and Public institutions in Guangdong Province on Development of Emergency Response …
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On August 17, 2020, the Ministry of Ecological Environment of China published the “Guideline for Environmental Management and Registration of New Chemical Substances (Draft calling opinions)” and started soliciting opinions. …
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In order to normalize the collection and dismantling activities of discarded vehicles and strengthen the control of related industries, on July 18, 2020, seven administrative agencies such as the Ministry …
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China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the “Plan for Coordinated Transformation and Upgrading of the Industry of Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Surrounding Regions …
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On July 21, 2020, the local government of Guangdong province announced “Notice on measures to implement foreign capital investment” in order to respond the requirements of “the Opinions on further …
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The Bureau of Ecology and Environment of Shanghai announced a notice about “the revision of the list on emergency emission reductions for severe air pollution days in 2020”, in order …
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