As a series of heated protests against chemical plants, metal factories and heavy industries have rocked China, experts have called on the government to listen to the public's objections, or risk making the situation worse.
Yang Chaofei, the deputy director of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences told the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Friday that China needs to consider pollution damage compensation laws as well as regulations to allow environmental lawsuits based on the public interest.
He also told the committee that polluters in China rarely see the inside of a courtroom, let alone receive a guilty verdict. According to Yang, the number of environmental protests in China has been increasing at an average rate of 29 percent per year since 1996, but less than 1 percent of the environmental disputes were settled through laws or the court system.
Temperature drops in central and eastern China
Sina Microblog
Tencent Microblog
Feedback
RSS
