China Announces Draft Environmental Tax Law

Wow, how things have changed.  For years their unregulated, spiraling economic growth has fostered an environmental disaster.  Thanks to world and internal pressures, suffered by a government that abhors social unrest, they are remediating and reacting with at least some action.

We hope this announcement is not window dressing and, like the early environmental legislation in the US and other parts of the world, sets a very different, sustainable playing field in China.

Thanks so much to the Better World Club for their post:



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The Chinese State Council has unveiled a draft environmental tax law which proposes to levy taxes for air, water, and noise pollution--as well as greater financial and criminal punishments for violators.

According to the South China Morning Post, the legislation, announced last week, appears to be making good on Beijing's promise to implement regulations that will force polluters to pay for the damage they cause. 
Fines for industrial noise will also be levied. The amount of the fine is dependent on the level of decibels recorded. 

FOR many companies, the cost of complying with environmental regulations has traditionally outweighed the fines, providing little incentive to install clean technologies and given rise to various instances of environmental damage to the landscape. 

Amendments to the Environmental Protection Law, which went into effect on January 1st, also include provisions to bolster financial and criminal punishments for transgressors. 

Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said it would motivate companies to embrace clean technology. "Details on the carbon tax are scant," reports Great News, "but previous reports indicated that it would come into force by 2015 and [fines] might start at 10 yuan ($1.60) per tonne of carbon, rising to 50 yuan ($8) per tonne by 2020."  However, given the imposition of the pollution taxes, China may hold off on the new carbon tax 

According to Reuters:  "The carbon and air pollution taxes would target mostly the same sources, and in difficult economic times China is wary of hitting companies with too many costly regulations."