Naming and shaming of polluters not enough

AFTER SEVERAL ROUNDS of inspections earlier this month, the environmental inspection bureau under the Ministry of Environmental Protection has revealed that a host of coal-fired enterprises in Northeast China are responsible for various environmental violations such as discharging excessive pollutants. However, the companies have only been given verbal warnings that require them to rectify the issues. A Beijing News commentary calls for stricter enforcement of the revised Environmental Protection Law.

There is no such thing as "name and shame" in the Environmental Protection Law, whether the old law or the new. The national environmental watchdog's warning to some enterprises in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, therefore, might be intended to pressure them to "rectify" their wrongdoings as some media reports suggest. But the expression is vague and fails to elaborate on how the polluters will be supervised and punished.

According to the new Environmental Protection Law that came into effect this year, environmental protection departments at the prefecture level or above can halt the operations of enterprises discharging more pollutants than they are allowed to when necessary.