Environmental protection authorities nationwide issued more than 124,000 penalties and closed 2,465 enterprises for environmental violations last year, the minister of environmental protection said on Thursday.
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Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection takes questions at a press conference during the ongoing National People’s Congress in Beijing March 9, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] |
Chen Jining said at a news conference that the country's new Law on Environmental Protection, enacted in 2015, has already shown its teeth against violators as fines from penalties handled out by law enforcement authorities reached 6.63 billion yuan ($959.5 million) last year, up by 56 percent year-on-year.
In 2016, the environmental protection authorities transferred 6,064 cases that involved environmental protection crimes to judicial organs, up by 37 percent year-on-year, he said.
The country also saw 40 public litigation cases in the environmental protection sector last year, Chen said.
Nine provincial areas, including Beijing, have established environmental police forces to crack down on violations, he said.
Chen noted that the new law also has enabled authorities to better monitor and punish violations by businesses. The authorities can close down factories, suspend or limit their production activities and handle fines based on the number of consecutive days of violations.
However, Chen conceded that implementation of the law is still deterred by the lack of effort from local authorities and frequent violations by businesses.
The environmental authorities also should beef up law enforcement forces to better implement the law, he said.
