Uphill task

Among the five new "super ministries" set up last week, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) acts most actively to fulfill its duties in winning China's demanding battle against environmental woes.

The ministry last Tuesday replaced its website domain name SEPA (the State Environmental Protection Administration), the same day the annual session of National People's Congress (NPC) closed. It changed former SEPA head Zhou Shengxian's title to minister shortly after the top legislature voted for Premier Wen Jiabao's nomination, even though the vice-ministers' names remained unknown. The ministry's staff has been joyfully taking photos in front of the national environment watchdog building in downtown Beijing before the SEPA name is changed.

Internally, Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou and other high-level officials in charge are considering a reshuffle of SEPA, as well as its elevation into a real ministry. Zhou has required his staff prepare for the new ministry's launch ceremony even though the internal reshuffle will not be finished until July.

By July, all staff will be put in place to "boost environmental and ecological protection efforts and accelerate the building of a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society", missions assigned by the State Council in this round of administrative reform.

So far, the new ministry has not officially made public its increased responsibilities. But it seems very likely that environmental protection ministry, among 27 Cabinet departments, will be playing its strengthened watchdog role on two fronts: authority consolidation and authority penetration.

On the first hand, a source said, the environment ministry is expected to have consolidated authority over "pollution prevention", which is currently handled by several different departments. It will have full responsibility for water pollution, while control of industrial pollution is also to be strengthened under the new ministry.

It will also be responsible for biodiversity management and approval and the assessment of national ecological protection zones, which is currently the job of the forestry administration. As the country rolls out its program of building nuclear power generators, the ministry will play a role in safety management to prevent radiation leaks.

On the other hand, the new ministry has an ambitious plan for authority penetration. The watchdog plans to have its hands in the entire economic activity chain, including production, distribution, trade and consumption, instead of the long-time practice of treatment after pollution only.

This is not to mention the responsibility of building up an environmentally friendly society, which requires a much wider involvement from all walks of life. The above two fronts have already burdened the new ministry with mounting challenges in building up its administrative capacities.

The capacity building will also focus on two fronts. First, it will boost its negotiation abilities. For quite a long time, China has adopted a "development-is-king" policy and the environmental watchdog had been given a weak administrative status. However, environmental degradation and a resource shortage have started to constrain the country's development after 30 years of galloping expansion.

Fortunately, China's leadership has kept a sober mind about the situation. It has been determined to implement a "Scientific Development Outlook" to pursue balanced development both in environmental protection and economic growth. From a policy angle, the mindset change has already brought many responsibilities of the new environmental ministry.

However, its weakened administrative role in previous years may not bring equal negotiating status when dealing with other Cabinet ministries. For example, it will have full responsibility for water pollution, while the control of industrial pollution is also to be strengthened under the new ministry. This requires it to negotiate with other powerful Cabinet departments such as economic planning, water resources, construction, agriculture and oceanic administration.

Recently, SEPA has received praise for its role in implementing environmental economic polices, such as green credit, security and insurances to help enterprises carry out economic activities in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

The new responsibilities have also required the new ministry to build its capacity from the other front. It badly needs to improve professional expertise in handing those supervisory activities with banks, securities and insurances regulatory bodies.

Currently, the ministry's teams designing these economic tools are far from powerful. It will take a long time to make them sophisticated and it will also take a long time to implement all these strict economic regulatory polices.

No matter what new responsibilities the ministry will be taking on, let us not forget the grim environmental situation in China. Statistics indicate that more than one-fourth of China's surface water didn't meet the minimum requirements, air quality in one-third of Chinese cities remains poor and pollution is accelerating its spread to rural regions after surpassing urban boundaries. Meanwhile, environmental accidents are taking place at an alarming speed.

So please be practical while aiming higher, new environmental protection ministry.

The writer welcomes feedback and comment on China's ongoing administrative reform on energy and the environment. He can be reached at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/24/2008 page4)