Heave industrial smog have almost become normally in most northern Chinese cities, since China’s environmental protection law passed in 1989, the country has become the world’s second-largest economy and its biggest carbon emitter.
The environmental sustainability is rapidly moving up the agenda for President Xi Jinping, now a major campaign against environmental violations has so far penalized more than 35,000 companies and over 5,700 officials, Central government inspection teams have coordinated with multiple local government agencies in sweeps covering 30 provinces and regions.
The inspections and actions represent a new paradigm in environmental enforcement in China, backed by laws with teeth, new legal and administrative infrastructure, and policy support from the highest level.
Some industry suffered a lot from this campaign, the north of China, around 30 percent of aluminium smelting capacity could potentially be closed, 35 percent cut envisaged to alumina production in the same provinces, reducing supply of the key raw material required to produce aluminium.
The country’s moves to protect the environment and avoid pollution-related social unrest represent a radical shift in Chinese policy. The current rigor in environmental enforcement is likely to prevail.
Proactive self-assessment, combined with a strong policy, is the right way for companies to guard against nasty surprises, and to have a ready defense demonstrating robust environmental compliance policies.
