China has incorporated significant human rights protection in its new environmental legislation recently passed by the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC).

The new law, the Circular Economy Promotion Act, was passed into law on 29 August 2008 and will come into force on 1 January 2009. While its main purpose is to restructure China’s economic base from a linear resource-consuming economy to a circular system in which the waste (heat, water, gas and any other waste products from an industrial process), the new law effectively takes protection of the environment and the conservation of resources as the basis for an entirely new economic system.

The human rights provisions of the Circular Economy Promotion Act are in line with the ‘Measures on Open Environmental Information’ guidelines as reported by PackWebasia.com in June 2008,  which were implemented to: “propel and regulate the disclosure of environmental information by administrative departments in charge of environmental protection by enterprises to maintain the rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations to obtain environmental information and promote public involvement in environmental protection”.

By including the human rights provisions in the Law, it brings in effect the Measures for compulsory implementation.

The human rights provisions in the new Circular Economy Promotion Act state in Article 10 that citizens have the right to report any enterprises, or government-related agencies/ministries etc that have or are wasting resources or are involved in any action that damages the environment. In addition, the people’s complaints should be made public and the results of investigations into environmental abuse have to be publicized.

Citizens also have the right to any information that will help them understand the Central Government’s development of a circular economy throughout the Mainland.

Based on the ‘Measures on Open Environmental Information’, this means that citizens are entitled to the following types of information:

• Laws, regulations, rules, standards and other regulatory documents with respect to environmental protection; Environmental protection plans, quality status, statistics and environmental investigation information.
• Emergency plans for and forecast, occurrence and handling of sudden environmental events;
• Information on type, volume and disposal of solid waste produced in medium to large cities;
• Information on the acceptance of environmental impact assessment documents of construction projects, results of the examination process, details of environmental protection inspection and approvals – particularly with regard to completion of construction projects - items, basis, conditions, procedures and results of other environmental protection administrative licenses issued;
• Items, basis, standards and procedures with respect to the collection of pollutant emission fees, amount of pollutant emission fees payable by and the amount actually imposed on polluters and information on exemption, reduction and postponement of payment of pollutant emission fees.

Lastly, citizens have the right to put forward views and suggestions that would contribute to the development of a circular economy.

Citizens are assured of no backlash in reporting errant companies, government officials and departments by a provision in the ‘Measures on Open Environmental Information’ which states: “The governments should protect the informants and give necessary rewards to them according to the law”.

See related story: China issues landmark Freedom of Environmental Information guidelines

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