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China news tagged with: SEPA (53)

• Green Whirlwind Sweeps China

  

  Asia Times writes about the possible upgrade of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) into a Ministry of Environment.

  As if to boost its authority ahead of the anticipated upgrading, SEPA has been gearing up to launch one after another of what the Chinese media call “green whirlwinds”. So much so that the word “green” has become very fashionable in the country recently.

  On February 25, SEPA unveiled a “green securities” policy. Pan Yue, vice director of SEPA, said the agency had issued a regulation stipulating that highly polluting companies must pass environmental inspections when applying for initial public offerings (IPO). Listed companies with high pollution emissions and energy are required to make environmental disclosures and pass environmental inspections for refinancing.

  Along with numerous other “green” initiatives, SEPA shows signs that its authority is growing. Yet, the connection between the government and many potentially polluting companies makes SEPA’s effectiveness questionable, even as a Ministry of the Environment.

  Therefore, whether the new environment authority can effectively exercise its function still largely depends on whether other government departments or provinces are willing to cooperate and coordinate. In the three “green” policies, for example, SEPA has the full support of the three financial regulators.

  » Read more
  • March 5, 2008 10:46 AM

• China Environment Agency Gets More Power

  

  AP reports this week the Chinese government reviewed plans for the creation of a cabinet ministry to hold the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Officials believe this will give SEPA more authority. The plans are expected to be formally approved in March.

  Under the plan, the agency would become the Ministry of Environment, said Hongjun Zhang, a former agency official and environmental law expert, and Lo Sze Ping of Greenpeace in Beijing.

  Zhang said the staff could be increased from 200 people to 300 or 400, and that over time the body would be given more authority over local environmental bureaus, which tend to be beholden to local industries and politicians and often flout the rules.

  Critics say this change will have little impact and regulations will likely continue to be ignored.

  Even with new powers, the environmental watchdog is likely to face formidable opposition from local governments geared to ramping up economic growth and protecting factories that pay tax revenues.

  Local environmental officials also will still answer to provincial or local governments, leaving the new ministry understaffed for the task policing the environment, activists said.

  » Read more
  • March 1, 2008 3:51 PM

• “Green Securities Act” Blocks 10 Polluting Public Companies

  

  China’s environmental watchdog is dealing another blow to the country’s heavy polluters, with a “Green Securities” regulation that aims to blacklist, and block the inflow of capital of, heavyweight polluting public companies. Translated by CDT from 21st Century Herald (Chinese):

  The State Environmental Protection Administration on Feb. 25 issued an official regulation on environmental monitoring of public companies, placing a hurdle for firms that plan to go public that must be overcome along with their applications to the securities regulator. The law also requires public companies to disclose important information about their environmental performance; environmental failings will have significant consequences. The law will target heavily polluting and energy intensive sectors with an annual listing of environmental performance index and ranking.

  Since the second half of 2007, SEPA has finished an environmental review of 37 companies and said “no” to 10 public listing applications or reapplications on their prospectuses. On Feb. 25, an official with the SEPA pollution control department said that eight of the ten firms have passed the environmental review reassessment.

  Vice Minister Pan Yue of SEPA notes that environmental monitoring on public companies in China is still weak and the result has been that heavily polluting and energy intensive firms have been able to expanded their operations without delivering their environmental promises after going public. We still need to see how effective the “green securities act” will be in cleaning up the records of China’s major public company polluters.

  Below is a list of companies whose applications or reapplications to go public failed SEPA’s first environmental review:

  1. Hebei Weiyuan Biochemicals Holding Ltd. 河北威远生物化工股份有限公司
  2. Guangdong Wanxing Inorganic Pigments Holding Ltd. 广东万兴无机颜料股份有限公司
  3. Guangdong Ta Brand Group 广东塔牌集团股份有限公司
  4. Shandong Chenming Paper Group 山东晨鸣纸业集团
  5. Gansu Qilian Mountains Cement Group 甘肃祁连山水泥集团股份有限公司
  6. Longyuan Construction Group 龙元建设集团股份有限公司
  7. China Central Coal Energy Holding Ltd. 中国中煤能源股份有限公司
  8. Sichuan Northern Nitrocellulose Holding Ltd. 四川北方硝化棉股份有限公司
  9. Purple Gold Mining Holding Ltd. 紫金矿业股份有限公司
  10. Anhui Conch Cement Co. Ltd. 安徽海螺水泥有限公司

  » Read more
  • February 25, 2008 10:23 PM

• China Green Credit Move Meets Resistance: Watchdog

  

  From Reuters: Local governments in China are resisting Beijing’s attempt to hold back bank credit from big polluting businesses.

  “Some provinces and financial institutions have not implemented the green credit policy at all,” said Pan Yue, deputy head of the environment agency, in a statement on its Web site www.sepa.gov.cn.

  High polluting and energy-intensive sectors are still profitable and protected by local governments, which take a short-term view of the economy, Pan said.

  Pan’s agency and the People’s Bank of China launched a program in July 2007, in which the central bank would instruct lenders to reduce or even stop lending to firms included on a list of polluters compiled by SEPA.

  » Read more
  • February 15, 2008 6:22 PM

• China to Establish Environment Ministry This Year

  

  According to Chemistry World magazine, the Chinese government is planning to replace SEPA with an environmental ministry this year:

  Hong Yaxiong, deputy director at SEPA’s department of policy, said that the move would help the government stop more of its environmental policies falling by the wayside because the central government has been unable to enforce them locally.

  ‘The difficulty in implementing [environmental] law and the under-staffing of our agency are expected to be largely resolved with the upcoming new ministry,’ Hong told Chemistry World on the sidelines of the first International Forum on China Environmental Investment in Beijing, on 23 and 24 January.

  China has passed over 100 environmental laws and regulations, according to a recent article in Science [1]. But the plethora of new rules has failed to curb pollution, which is estimated to have cost the country US$200 billion in 2005 alone - a figure equivalent to 10 per cent of its gross domestic product.

  Related Reuters’ report: China Steps Up Efforts to Fight Pollution

  » Read more
  • February 13, 2008 3:33 PM

• China’s Green Credit Move Faces Obstacles

  

  From Financial Times :

  China’s chief environmental watchdog says local officials are sabotaging a central government edict to restrict loans to heavily polluting industries, despite limited success in withholding credit in some provinces.

  Pan Yue , the outspoken deputy head of the State Environmental Protection Agency , said in a statement on the organisation’s website on Tuesday that “the obstacles met by green credit have shown the difficulties in changing current trends and rules.”

  “Some provinces and financial institutions have not implemented the policy at all,” he said.

  Under the programme launched in mid-2007, Sepa was to provide the central bank and the banking regulator with a list of serious polluters for whom loans would be limited or declined altogether.

  » Read more
  • February 13, 2008 10:26 AM

• Don’t Drink the Water and Don’t Breathe the Air - The Economist

  

  The Economist writes about the different challenges SEPA, China’s environmental protection agency, faces in its efforts to curb pollution:
  
  

  THESE days China’s environmental bureaucrats know how to talk the talk. They readily admit that pollution is poisoning the country’s water resources, air and soil. They acknowledge that carbon emissions are soaring. If only, they lament, the government would give them the means to do something about it.For all its green promises in recent years, the Communist Party has done little to build a bureaucracy with the clout to enforce environmental edicts and monitor pollution effectively. As long as they deliver economic growth without too much public protest, officials can still expect promotion, however polluted their areas.

  [Image: A grey Beijing day. The Economist.]

  » Read more
  • January 24, 2008 12:41 PM

• China to Study Sources of Its Pollution - AP

  

  From the Associated Press:

  China will conduct its first national survey of pollution sources in February to help control environmental deterioration in a country with some of the world’s most tainted cities, state media said Friday.

  The study will identify and collect data on sources of industrial, agricultural and residential pollution for two months, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • January 4, 2008 8:00 PM

• Corporate Ecology Urged In China - Zhang Qi

  

  From China Daily:

  In addition to prices, earnings ratios and dividends, there is now another benchmark for stock market investors to watch - corporate environmental performance.

  The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) is proposing to force publicly listed companies to regularly disclose environmental information through new rules that could be finalized in the next six months, Ge Chazhong (葛察忠), an official affiliated with the SEPA says in a telephone interview.

  The latest requirement comes not long after environmental disclosure and inspection regulations were strengthened for companies applying for IPOs. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • December 31, 2007 3:44 AM

• China Considers Environmental Tax on Polluters - Planet Ark

  

  From Planet Ark:

  China is considering an environmental tax on polluters to cut emissions, a senior government official said on Monday.

  “We are actively promoting this idea. But we have to consult with relevant ministries,” Pan Yue, deputy head of the State Environmental Protection Administration , told reporters on the sidelines of the ruling Communist Party’s five-yearly Congress. Beijing has put environmental protection at the centre stage of its macro policies guiding the world’s fourth-largest economy to achieve sustainable growth, though analysts are skeptical when it comes to implementing the well-intented rules. [Full Text]
  
  

  » Read more
  • October 15, 2007 7:29 PM

• China’s Environmental Situation Remains Serious - Xinhua

  

  From Xinhua, via China Daily:

  China’s overall environmental situation is still “serious” with frequent pollution accidents affecting the quality of life for many people, said a report released by the environment watchdog on Monday.

  China’s investment in pollution control hit a record 256.78 billion yuan (US$34.24 billion) in 2006, up 7.5 percent year-on-year and accounting for 1.23 percent of the annual GDP, according to the report.

  However, despite the increase, “China is under increasing pressure to cope with environmental pollution”, said the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) report, which tries to provide an overview of the nation’s environmental situation in 2006. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • September 24, 2007 10:35 PM

• Cleaning Up China - The New York Times

  

  Will China have the chance to wipe out the pollution by itself before the country turns into an environmental disaster zone? Editorial from The New York Times:
  
  

  In 1991, Lawrence Summers ” then the World Bank’s chief economist and later Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary ” wrote a memo suggesting that the bank should encourage the world’s dirty industries to move to developing countries. The forgone earnings of workers sickened or killed by pollution would be lower in low-wage countries, he noted, while people in poor countries also cared less about a clean environment. “The economic logic of dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable,” he wrote.

  Mr. Summers later apologized, saying his words were “sardonic counterpoint,” meant to spur new thinking about the environment and development. In any case, the World Bank’s encouragement wasn’t needed. In the 16 years since, a large share of the world’s polluting industries have migrated to the largest low-wage country of all, China, helping to turn big swaths of its landscape into an environmental disaster zone.
  [Full Text]

  Check out article: SEPA removes five areas from blacklist

  » Read more
  • September 23, 2007 10:04 PM

• Five Areas Removed from Environment Blacklist - Xinhua

  

  From Xinhua via China Daily:

  China’s environmental watchdog has taken three cities, one county and one industrial zone off its blacklist as these places have passed environmental reassessment. The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said in a notice on Sunday that the five areas have met the “essential requirements” of environmental protection after “earnest overhaul.”

  The areas which was the first batch removed from the list include Bayan Nur in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Zhoukou city in Henan Province, Weinan city in Shaanxi Province, Xiangfen county in Shanxi Province, and the industrial zone in Wuhu city of Anhui Province….[Full Text]

  [Image: Laboratory technicians test water quality of the first sweage treatment plant built in the source of the Hanjiang River, via China.org]

  » Read more
  • September 23, 2007 9:58 AM

• Foreign Firms Face Equal Environmental Penalties - Sun Xiaohua

  

  Hefei-based subsidiaries of Unilever and Hitachi“the only two foreign firms included in a spot environmental inspection earlier this summer”were both caught pumping out wastewater in violation of government limits. Now the State Environmental Protection Administration promises domestic-foreign parity in the handing out of punishment. From China Daily:

  A senior official at the environment watchdog yesterday vowed to mete out equally harsh punishments to domestic and foreign-funded firms that violate environmental laws.

  Ren Longjiang, an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said all enterprises must obey environmental laws and regulations. “Environmental pollution caused by foreign-funded companies has come to the attention of SEPA, and we will strengthen our supervision,” Ren told the Xinhua News Agency. [Full Text]

  According the article, Unilever has been charged 100,000 RMB for discharging water with chemical oxygen demand (a measure of organic pollutants) in excess of environmental limits. Hitachi was found discharging water with excessive pH levels. The article did not say what fine the Japanese electronics producer faced.

  » Read more
  • September 18, 2007 11:55 PM

• SEPA Proposes Enviro-economic Policy Road Map - Oriental Morning Post

  

  China’s environmental watchdog is willing to become an underdog in producing real solutions to the snowballing pollution problem in China. Translated from Oriental Morning Post (‰∏úÊñπÊó©Êä•):

  SEPA, China’s equivalent of US EPA, has four times announced “environmental protection storms” over recent years, but the results are modest, admitted its outspoken deputy chief Pan Yue (ÊΩòÂ≤≥) at a “green China” forum in Beijing. The storms haven’t become a systematic measurement that restricts the polluting by factories. So he puts high hopes in working out a set of environmental-economical policies, from legislative to technical to administrative measures, to resolve the lack of effectiveness of the “storms.”

  » Read more
  • September 11, 2007 8:04 PM

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