China will enforce environmental policy more strictly

Subject

The coming restructuring of the environment-related government organs.

Significance

An overhaul of China’s environmental bureaucracy announced at the National People's Congress last month shows that the government is committed to realising its 'ecological civilisation' agenda by improving environmental governance and enforcement. It aims to achieve this by reducing fragmentation between elite policymaking institutions and by a centralised, integrated and holistic approach to climate change and environmental and natural resources management.

Impacts

• Businesses face regulatory uncertainty until at least the June deadline for finalising the new ministerial departments, and probably beyond.
• State capacity and willingness to enforce environmental rules strictly will increase.
• Pollution in water systems and air pollutants other than carbon dioxide will now receive more attention.
• The rollout of China’s national emissions trading scheme, which is already behind schedule, may be negatively affected.