Ministry plans tougher emission permit system to curb pollution

The Ministry of Environmental Protection is set to enhance China's pollutant emission permit mechanism as part of the country's effort to achieve clean air and safe water.

Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection, told the International Workshop on Emission Permits hosted by the ministry in Beijing on Friday that the ministry is making plan for a reform on the current emission permit system, which has been effective for more than 20 years but fails to curb the rampant discharge of pollutants into the air and waters.

"There are many institutional loopholes and technical obstacles that hinder our efforts to control pollutant emissions," he said, adding existing regulations lack practicable and specific stipulations.

Globally, a number of industrialized countries such as the United States, Germany and Australia have successively set up effective mechanism to govern pollutant emissions, according to Chen.

Wang Jinnan, researcher at the Center for Emission Permit and Trading under Ministry of Environmental Protection, said there are various statistics systems that survey enterprises' emissions and their results often contradict with each other's.

In addition, the discharge of heavy metals and emissions by small companies is yet to be covered by the current permit system, he added.

The expert said Ministry of Environmental Protection is determined to integrate permits for different pollutants and to encourage more public scrutiny in this field.