Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mol, Arthur P. J.
• He, Guizhen
• Zhang, Lei

Titel

Information Disclosure in Environmental Risk Management: Developments in China

Ist Teil von

• Journal of current Chinese affairs, 2011, Vol.40 (3), p.163-192

Ort / Verlag

GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Germany, National Institute of Chinese Studies (NICS) of the White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC), United Kingdom

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Entering the twenty-first century, China has been the site of many serious environmental disasters and accidents. These have strengthened the call for the establishment of an environmental risk management system and for the development of new policies to effectively manage risk. Among the new policies in China’s environmental risk management strategy are pollution insurance and information disclosure. This paper explores information disclosure policies through the implementation of the Environmental Information Disclosure Decree by governmental authorities and companies. In both 2008 and 2010, we reviewed the websites of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and all 31 provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus, conducted experiments in requesting information disclosure, and held interviews with all provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus. We conclude that the implementation of the Environmental Information Disclosure Decree is improving but still far from widespread, full and effective. The lack of enforcement and the ambiguity of some clauses in the decree give provincial environmental agencies great discretion to avoid disclosure and discourages enforcement of company environmental information disclosure. Implementation shortcomings of the decree are also related to the longstanding closeness, secrecy and monopoly of information in China’s political system.