Polluters pay almost 1 billion yuan in compensation

Local governments across the country have claimed almost 1 billion yuan ($145 million) in compensation from polluters after 424 cases were launched to seek environmental damage compensation, a senior environmental official said on Friday.

A total of 206 cases have been concluded since the compensation scheme started at the beginning of last year, said Bie Tao, head of law, regulations and standards at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Of those, 186 were settled through consultation. The remainder of compensation cases are still ongoing.

The environmental damage cases were distributed unevenly across the country, with 82 percent of them occurring in 10 provinces. Governments in two provincial-level regions have yet to claim any compensation at all, Bie told a news conference.

The central authorities issued a guideline to reform the ecological and environmental damage compensation system in late 2017. Demanding the system be rolled out nationwide on Jan 1, 2018, the guideline aimed to establish a system to protect and improve ecosystems and the environment by 2020.

Individuals and companies that cause environmental damage should not only bear administrative and criminal responsibility, but will also be held responsible for repairing the damage they caused and paying compensation, according to the guideline.

Governments at provincial and prefectural levels and departments and institutions they designate, are eligible to file a lawsuit if they fail to reach an agreement with the polluters through consultation.

The compensation will be collected by local governments as a kind of revenue, it said.