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
