Latest comments posted about The environment needs freedom of information on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/990-The-environment-needs-freedom-of-information http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/990-The-environment-needs-freedom-of-information In his 1859 text "On Liberty" John Stewart Mill while talking about freedom stated that, "If the published idea is truthfull, if it provides a chance for real understanding, it will be exploited. Whereas, if the published idea is wrong, it allows the reader no further clarification or understanding of the truth. Because, this kind of explanation and impression can only be found in the battle between truth and error." Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:30:10 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-4100 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-4100 To protect the environment, government plays a very important role. 1. Set regulations for industries to follow. 2. Implement regulations. 3. Educate general public. 4. Set up education materials to school (educate our new generations!) There are so many need to be done by the government! Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:46:26 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3892 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3892 Just as Mr. Ma says, this is a cornerstone among environmental protection regulations. Opening the environmental information to the public can raise the social awareness, supervise and empower the local government, and push the enterprises to meet environmental standard by using the legal instrument as well as building company images. It will undoubtedly take significant effect. However, we must realize that it is only a step, though important, in our a-thousand-mile long way. Even that small step would face a lot of difficulty and challenges in implementation process. This partially explains why it’s just in a “trial period”. Challenges NO.1, the capability of Environment Protection Bureaus (EPBs) varies. I’m afraid that quite a lot EPBs lack funding, equipment and capacity to implement the regulation. They might also not be able to access relevant information, let alone open to the public. It’s highly related to the support from local governments. Challenges NO.2, different level of pollution shall be attributed to different areas with diverse economic structure in various stages of social development. For those highly polluted areas, releasing more pollutants means more revenue and economic profit. Thus the traditional way of development is intrinsically in a conflict with environmental protection. Think about it, if the local government is purely using economic growth as the assessment standard, how could they be motivated to protect the local environment rather than to find fault with the protection work, which is likely to happen in this political setting? For the less developed areas, how to balance between development and environmental protection shall be a matter of arts, which could not be solely handled by law. Challenges NO. 3, how real is the information given by the enterprises? How much can the government trust the company? How much can we as ordinary citizens trust them? It’s a difficult issue as well as in advanced economy. EU mistrusted the information, thus allowed seven industries more quota for CO2 emission between 2004 and 2007. This almost eliminated CO2 emission cost for them between 2006 and 2007. Britain, in 2006, after 0.01% decrease in 2005, increased its CO2 emission by 1.25%. According to BBC’s special report,CO2 emission in EU has generally increased by 1-2% within two years. Learning a serious lesson, EU might not easily trust the enterprises any more. I assume, it would hire neutral assessment agency with high reputation to evaluate and supervise. In China, such type of agencies is still in the very beginning. The main force is still the EPB. How to guarantee the quality of information is a real challenge. But, importantly, we take a significant step. The challenges is always with the opportunity! Mon, 11 Jun 2007 01:16:18 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3845 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3845 Economics texts already prove -- information asymmetry causes risks to the environment just like it does financial risks So stressing the importance of transparent environmental information is better using quotes from textbooks. I've also seen the results of public participation by China's environmetal protection bureau in assessing climate effects, it was neither here nor there, nor actionable, this is a fiasco in the hands of the environmetal protection authorities. If information must be publicly available, what should first be made known is: What information do the authorities know? Let them list it, let the public discuss what can be released, the authorities should also let people know which information can be released, how it can be accessed, or let the public know which information is related to public security and cannot be made public Otherwise, everything else is just window dressing. The environmental protection authorities should let everyone know, for example: China’s imports of refuse (used as raw materials), how many permits for how much were given, which companies are involved, how much in handling fees was charged, actual imports, usage. This would raise awareness of the “foreign rubbish” issue. Or, how much of the EPA’s budget was used for national research, how much was used by its subsidiaries, local governments, why do we always hear complaints about lack of funding for such research? While other government departments are flush with cash. Or: tell the public if there was no reduction in emissions, why do local government reports say the air quality is improving? We need factual, statistical backup. If the bureau can’t even release this sort of information, no amount of clauses and regulations will help the cause. Mind you, I’m not pouring cold water on Mr Ma Jun, I just feel, the public availability of environmental information should be gradually realized at a micro level, that’s something we should be doing. Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:23:09 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3826 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3826 I think NGO and GO should share the environment protect rules together, Some information delivering in NGO program activities. but some of them did not be summaried for sharing with GO. And look after the earth need all of us think of that , So NGO and Go must make very open and healthy communication in the future. to promote official transparency well. Pauline Mon, 28 May 2007 15:01:15 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3754 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3754 i was very impresed by Ma Jun's statement. however, as we know it, information is power and i don't think that the information published will reflect the ACTUAL & REAL environmental impact of a company expecially if it is a state owned enterprise. Tue, 15 May 2007 03:24:44 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3689 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3689 Reguarding the project of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), I've seen some websites of the Local Environment Departments, they all have a corner for public participation, to give advice and make complaints: I think it' s great! Although in some of them, it is quite difficult to find this corner, if you open your eyes you can often see it. Especially the website of the Hubei Environment Department could do better at making it more evident. Juliet Thu, 10 May 2007 08:22:13 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3675 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/990#comment-3675