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China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has long been a watchdog without a bite. Charged with ensuring that the country's natural resources aren't trampled by its headlong economic growth, SEPA must go up against other branches of government, state-owned companies and China's burgeoning private enterprises—and it usually comes out on the bottom.
Last week, however, the agency pulled off a rare victory. On Wednesday, SEPA vice director Pan Yue announced that it had successfully halted construction on 30 major projects, including the massive Xiluodu Dam on the upper Yangtze River, all of which had apparently failed to carry out legally mandated environmental-impact assessments before building. Major power plants have long been dismissive of environmental regulations: the China Three Gorges Project Corp., which is responsible for the $5.3 billion Xiluodu Dam, initially defied SEPA's order to stop building on Jan. 18—a breach for which the agency could do nothing more draconian than levy a $24,000 fine.
But SEPA prevailed, largely by stirring a public outcry through local media—a controversy the People's Daily called an "environmental-impact assessment storm"—and by gaining the support of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which sets the nation's energy policy. The NDRC's backing could signal that China's leadership is beginning to act on recent promises of "sustainable development." "In the past, the NDRC would have backed up the power companies," says Yang Fuqiang, chief China representative for the U.S.-based Energy Foundation, a clean-power advocacy group. "Its support is a sign that [China's] leaders want to back SEPA up." Just days after the Jan. 18 ban, Premier Wen Jiabao praised SEPA at a meeting of senior officials, saying he was pleased to see it "getting down to business." In the end, however, it's unlikely SEPA will be able to hold up construction once the assessments are complete, even though such support has helped the agency bare its teeth. Much more will be needed to ensure that it can really use them.
- Susan Jakes | Beijing
- China's underdog environmental agency scores a big victory