The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Promotion of Clean Production mainly provides for improvements in the utilisation, production and implementation of processes, as well as technologies and equipment to reduce pollution, improve resource utilisation efficiency, limit, prevent or avoid pollution and polluting discharges in the course of production. Implemented in January 2003, the law can be divided into six parts; general provisions, realisation of cleaner production, implementation of cleaner production, inducement measures, legal liability, and supplementary articles.
The Clean Production Law stresses the desire of national government officials to promote a “circular (recycling) economy” and reduce pollution through wide adoption of clean production.
In July 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection promulgated a circular that strengthens the implementation of clean production audits. Polluting organisations may also be publicly exposed by local governments that may publish a list of the names of heavily-polluting enterprises in local media based on the pollution discharges of enterprises, where the pollutants exceed the standards or regulatory limits. This provides the public with a basis for policing enterprises’ implementation of cleaner production.
Enterprises publicly listed as above must periodically publish the status of their discharge of major pollutants and submit to public supervision.