Truemors
China is the most populous nation on earth; one in every five people on earth lives in China. With nearly 20% of all humans residing within its borders China has an enormous impact on the environmental health of the planet as a whole. In answer to this unique environmental responsibility China has introduced new legislation designed to promote sustainability.
The new legislation, which comes in to effect on January 1, 2009, offers tax breaks to corporations that take measures to contain the environmental impact of their operations. The aim of the legislation is to promote sustainable economic growth while exercising resource conservation and pollution control. Along with tax breaks for compliant corporations China has introduced spending programs designed to alleviate the country's negative environmental impact.
The law, passed on Friday at the closing of the fourth session of the National People's Congress standing committee, has been signed by President Hu Jintao and will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2009, the Xinhua news agency said.
The law calls for closer monitoring of resource-intensive and heavily polluting industries such as steelmaking, non-ferrous metal production, power generation, oil refining, construction and printing, Xinhua said.
It will encourage industries to adopt water-saving technologies and use cleaner sources of energy such as natural gas and alternative fuels.
It also promotes recycling or making use of waste materials, including the recycling of maize straw, livestock waste and farming by-products to produce marsh gas.
China is a major producer of pollution and environmental contaminants. It has set goals to significantly reduce emissions of major pollutants and energy consumption by the year 2010. This latest legislation is being touted as another step toward meeting these goals. In 2007, China reduced consumption by nearly 4% of 2006 levels.
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