Joining Forces to Combat Cross-provincial Pollution Environmental Protection Union between Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai Makes Solid Progress

“You live at one end of the Yangtze River, while I live at the other; even though I am unable to meet you, I drink the water that you have polluted.” This is a modified version of an ancient poem that aptly reflects the serious problem of cross-boundary pollution in river basins. But now, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai have joined forces to from an environmental protection union in a bid to tackle the issue of regional pollution.

In early August, the Yangtze River Delta environmental protection union got its first solid result: a document was jointly issued by the Jiangsu Environmental Protection Bureau, Shanghai Environmental Protection Department and Zhejiang Environmental Protection Bureau, standardizing information disclosure and assessment standards for corporate environmental conduct in the Yangtze River Delta.

“In fact, the regional characteristics of environmental problems are more evident than their economic ones.” Zhao Ting, deputy director of the Jiangsu Environmental Protection Bureau, stated that owing to the fact that regional econ-chains are connected to one another, water runs, and air in different places mix together, interactive air, there exists a high interdependency between the environments in up-stream areas, down-stream areas and surrounding areas. If water is polluted in upstream, downstream areas will also be affected. Once the ecological environment in one region is damaged, the neighboring areas will eventually be affected. To sum up, it is no use it different places within the same area tackle their environmental problems on their own.

In such a context, there have been increasing calls for “joint anti-pollution” is becoming urgent. Back in early 2002, Jiaxing City in Zhejiang Province established a system for water pollution control in border water areas and a mechanism for the notification of water environment status with Suzhou, which is located in Jiangsu Province. 

Prior to this, Professor Bi Jun, dean of the school of environmental studies at Nanjing University, had already worked on the subject of environmental cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta for two years. He said in an interview that Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai have common interests in such regions as Tai Hu Lake, the Yangtze River, Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea, and are facing common problems including the trans-boundary movement of pollution. Therefore, it is practically necessary and feasible to integrate environmental protection in the Yangtze River Delta.

As the first step in formal cooperation, this official document marked with the seals of the three provinces requires that every year before the June 5th world environment day, environmental protection departments in the Delta shall publicize the ratings of enterprise environmental behavior in the region via government website, newspapers and radio broadcast.

The biggest highlight of the document is “the three regions will implement a unified Assessment Standard for Enterprise Environmental Behavior in the Yangtze River Delta (Tentative). Upon reading the document, I noticed that the Standard included 11 assessment indexes for the assessment of enterprises, such as discharge up to standard, overall control, administrative penalty and environmental emergencies. Each index involves a rating based on actual circumstances. Ratings comprise of Excellent, Good, Average, Bad and Very Bad, which are represented by green, blue, yellow, red and black respectively. The environmental protection department will set up an inter-working system with other departments such as finance, industry and commerce and securities regulation authorities. By imposing different policies on different enterprises, these enterprises will be encouraged to control pollution consciously.

Ling Jing, the chief of the laws and regulations division at the Jiangsu Environmental Protection Bureau, thinks that the disclosure of enterprise environmental behavior in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai could improve environmental awareness among enterprises and standardize environmental conduct. At the same time, the sharing of environmental information will contribute to the enhancement of environmental management in the entire region

Setting up an “environmental protection union” has been a hope of the three provinces for a number of years.

At the High-level International Forum for Regional Environmental Cooperation held in Hangzhou on June 18 2004, authorities from the three regions proclaimed the Written Proposal for Environmental Cooperation in Yangtze River Delta; on December 15, 2008, the three regions signed the Cooperative Agreement of Environmental Protection in the Regions of Yangtze River Delta (from 2009 to 2010), wherein six cooperative programs were agreed on; the First Joint Meeting of Environmental Protection and Cooperation in the Yangtze Delta that was held in Shanghai on April 29, 2009. Three key subjects in environmental protection and cooperation in 2009 were discussed at the meeting.

In addition to cross-regional cooperation in enterprise information disclosure headed by the Jiangsu Environmental Protection Bureau, several other initiatives are also close to fruition. These initiatives include the strengthening of regional air pollution control led by Shanghai and an initiative to enhance linked environmental supervision in the region headed by the Zhejiang Environmental Protection Bureau. The former is based around the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Utilizing techniques used in the Beijing Olympics, the initiative involves the study and implementation of a linked safeguard mechanism for air quality in the area that the Expo is to be held in. The latter aims to enhance joint environmental law enforcement in the delta region by establishing a special platform for network exchanges. It will crack down on illegal acts, such as the transfer and disposal of dangerous waste, and further improve the region's capacity to deal with dangerous waste in an emergency.

Bi Jun said in the interview that environmental protection is one of the toughest challenges in the integration of the Yangtze River Delta owing to the large amounts of conflicts of interest that are involved. For instance, each region is able to legislate independently, meaning that there are discrepancies in environmental standards and enforcement requirements in different regions. This could result in the exodus of enterprises to regions with more lax environmental regulations. In turn, this could cause conflicts between different areas. Thus, "taking due actions and seeking common ground while accepting the existing differences will be the best approach to cooperation.” (Source: www. people. com. cn)