New Lingang guideline to take effect on July 1
A NEW guideline on environmental management of the Lingang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone will take effect from July 1, Shanghai Ecology and Environment Bureau announced yesterday.
It will simplify procedures on environmental impact assessment for projects with limited influence on the environment.
Currently, there are three ways to do environmental impact assessment.
Projects with little environmental impact are only required to provide an environmental impact registration form, while those having an impact on the environment but cause no pollution need to give an environmental impact report form to explain the impact.
For projects causing pollution, they should hand in a detailed environmental impact report about the pollutants they may release into the environment and how they will be dealt with.
Meanwhile, new projects’ environmental impact assessment and application for sewage discharge permission can be done at the same time with one set of documents and one form, which will help save time and improve efficiency.
Those on the national or city’s major and important project list can have the publicity and review of their technology assessment and environmental impact assessment run in parallel, and the time the two take will be halved.
The bureau also plans to promote environment-related data sharing, set up codes for relevant industries on environmental protection and support the construction of environmental infrastructure such as sewage treatment plants and solid waste treatment facilities.
A credit appraisal system will be established and improved. For enterprises with good credit, the bureau will spend less times on supervision and execution.
But for companies saddled with bad credit and facing more public complaints, there will be more supervision and execution. The supervision on third-party service agency will also be strengthened.