China will improve the supervision of Chinese exporters and ban exporting
that causes pollution, said Zhang Lijun, vice director of the State
Environmental Protection Administration, yesterday.
Environmental
protection departments will set up a database to collect information on those
exporters who violate environmental protection rules and also detail the efforts
those exporting companies make to clean up their act, Zhang said.
No date
was given for the start of these new regulations.
Zhang said the SEPA
will improve the exchange of information with the Ministry of Commerce to
strengthen the supervision of Chinese exporters.
The SEPA and MOC issued
a notice earlier that exporters would be banned from trading abroad for one to
three years if they were found to have seriously violated environmental
protection rules, according to a notice issued the by the SEPA and
MOC.
In the past the MOC would authorize local departments to suspend
export-related applications of violating companies such as export quotas and
licenses, contracts for processing, and applications for participating in
national or regional trade fairs, based on reports from local environmental
watchdogs.
Analysts said they were the most severe measures the MOC had
adopted to crack down on environmental violations in the last four
years.
The government also announced yesterday a timetable for the
phaseout of outmoded plants as part of a national campaign to save energy and
reduce pollution.
These firms fail to meet environmental protection
standards and discharge requirements, the National Development and Reform
Commission and the SEPA said in a joint statement.
In the paper-making
industry, the country will outlaw outmoded factories with a total yearly
production equal to 6.5 million tons during the 11th Five-Year Period ending
2010.
In the alcohol industry, 1.6 million tons will be eliminated in the
years until 2010.
China also plans to do away with 200,000 tons of outdated capacity in
monosodium glutamate industry and 80,000 tons in citric acid production in the
period.
The government expects these moves to reduce COD, or chemical
oxygen demand, emission by a total of more than 1.24 million tons.
The
statement said local governments should enforce the shutdown of those
enterprises which are included in the phaseout list but do not quit on schedule.
Authorities can also cut power supply for the uncooperative.
Meanwhile,
a government official yesterday hailed non-governmental organizations working in
environmental protection as important players in policy making.
Zhou
Jian, deputy director of the SEPA, praised the role of NGOs in China's
environmental protection at the annual conference of Chinese NGOs in
Beijing.
Currently, there are more than 2,700 environmental protection
NGOs acting as a bridge between government and people.