What are the differences in the new Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law?

On August 29, the 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress voted to adopt the revised Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, and the new law will come into force on January 1, 2016.

It is reported that the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law has been revised twice since its enactment in 1987, in 1995 and 2000 respectively, and this is the third revision. The revised Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law consists of eight chapters and 129 articles. In addition to the General Provisions, Legal Responsibilities, and Supplementary Provisions, it provides regulations on air pollution prevention and control standards and time limit compliance plans, supervision and management of air pollution prevention and control, air pollution prevention and control measures, and joint prevention and control of air pollution in key areas. Compared with the original seven chapters and 66 articles, the revised content has almost doubled. So, what are the differences in the revised Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law?

Clarify the ideas for preventing and controlling air pollution

At the press conference held by the General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the afternoon of August 29, Tong Weidong, deputy director of the Administrative Law Office of the Law Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, pointed out that the Air Pollution Prevention Law is the first single law amended after the adoption of the new environmental protection law, which mainly reflects progress in four aspects.

The first goal is to improve the quality of the atmospheric environment, strengthen the responsibility of local governments, and enhance their supervision.

The Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law stipulates that the environmental protection department of the State Council may assess provincial governments, and provincial governments may formulate measures to assess the completion of local air environment quality improvement goals and key tasks for air pollution prevention and control. At the same time, cities that have not met the standards should formulate plans to meet the standards within a specified period of time and report to the same level of people's congress, strengthening the responsibility of local governments in environmental protection and improving air quality.

The second is to adhere to source control and improve relevant systems from the perspective of promoting the transformation of economic development mode, optimizing industrial structure, and adjusting energy structure.

The third is to focus on the main contradiction and solve prominent problems. Tong Weidong pointed out that the main sources of air pollution now come from coal combustion, industry, and motor vehicles, and this law has made targeted and specific regulations in these areas, especially for the joint prevention and control of key areas and the response measures to heavy pollution weather.

The fourth is to increase the severity of punishment. According to Tong Weidong, the newly revised "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law" has 129 articles, including 30 legal liability clauses. It has formulated a large number of specific and targeted measures, accompanied by corresponding punishments. And the specific punishment behaviors and types are close to 90, which improves the operability and pertinence of this law.

It is reported that the law has abolished the current maximum fine limit of 500000 yuan for enterprises and institutions that cause air pollution accidents, and added the provision of "daily fines".

At the same time, the law also stipulates that if an air pollution accident is caused, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel may be fined up to 50% of the income obtained from the enterprise or institution in the previous year. For those who cause general or major air pollution accidents, fines shall be calculated based on the direct losses caused by the pollution accident, ranging from 1 to 3 times; For those who cause major or catastrophic air pollution accidents, they shall be fined at a rate of not less than three times but not more than five times the direct losses caused by the pollution accident.

In addition, regarding the highlights of the newly revised "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law", Chang Jiwen, Deputy Director of the Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy at the Development Research Center of the State Council, has publicly pointed out that it clarifies the relationship between atmospheric environmental quality and total pollutant emissions, reflecting the scientific logic of legislation. He believes that air quality target management should be the core of atmospheric environment management, while the previous allocation of total air pollutant control indicators was based on an annual basis, without considering the real-time quality, real-time capacity, and real-time emission flow of atmospheric pollutants. The revised draft passed this time still adopts this idea, stipulating that "the prevention and control of air pollution should aim to improve the quality of the atmospheric environment", and clarifying the scientific logic of air pollution prevention and control.

Focus on solving the problem of pollution sources

For many cities, motor vehicle exhaust emissions are an important source of air pollution. Therefore, whether to authorize motor vehicle restrictions is also a hot topic in this revision and review.

The second review of the revised draft of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law stipulated that provincial governments may stipulate the types, regions, and times of restrictions on motor vehicle traffic based on the needs of air pollution prevention and control and the pollution situation of motor vehicle emissions. Regarding this regulation, many experts have discussed and pointed out that although there are some places that restrict the passage of motor vehicles, the scope is limited to urban areas. Authorizing the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government to restrict the passage of motor vehicles, the scope is too large, which will affect circulation and divide the unified market. At the same time, measures to restrict or prohibit motor vehicles involve restrictions on citizens' property rights.

In the newly revised Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, this provision has been deleted. Instead, encourage drivers of gasoline powered vehicles to turn off their engines without affecting road traffic and to stop for at least three minutes, in order to reduce emissions of air pollutants.

Regarding this, Chang Jiwen pointed out that traffic restrictions actually include two measures: mandatory restrictions and economic restrictions. The former treats driving related motor vehicles on restricted days and in restricted areas as illegal and punishes them; The latter is treated as a legal act, but adjusted through differentiated economic policies. The former can be abandoned, while the latter can be attempted.

In addition, to solve the problem of motor vehicle air pollution from the source, the newly revised "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law" has added two provisions: first, the formulation of fuel quality standards should comply with national air pollutant control requirements; Secondly, petroleum refining enterprises should produce fuel according to fuel quality standards.

Regarding this, Ma Jun, director of the Public Environment Research Center, pointed out that air pollution between different regions can easily affect each other. Without unified fuel quality standards, some large heavy trucks may be driven by interests to refuel in areas with relatively lower refueling costs. Different standards result in varying levels of pollutant emissions. By unifying oil standards across different regions, a unified national strategy is more conducive to governance.

In addition to the above-mentioned hot topics, how to effectively involve the public in environmental protection work has always been a focus of concern for all sectors of society. In response, the newly revised "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law" stipulates that air environmental quality standards and air pollutant emission standards should be available for free public access and download, and the list of key polluting units should be made public to the society.

In addition, in order to facilitate public participation in the supervision of atmospheric pollution control, the law also stipulates that environmental protection authorities and other departments responsible for atmospheric environmental protection supervision should publish reporting phone numbers, email addresses, etc., to facilitate public reporting. At the same time, environmental protection authorities and other departments responsible for atmospheric environmental protection supervision shall promptly handle reports and keep confidential the relevant information of the informant; For those who report with real names, feedback on the handling results should be provided. If verified to be true, rewards will be given to the informant.

For such issues, the "Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Protection," which officially came into effect on September 1st, also states that environmental protection authorities should strengthen publicity and education within their scope of responsibilities, popularize environmental science knowledge, and enhance public awareness of environmental protection and conservation; Encourage the public to consciously practice green living and consumption, and form a social trend of low-carbon conservation and environmental protection.