Integrating and Prioritizing Environmental Risks in China's Risk Management Discourse

Abstract

Human society faces a growing number of risks, including both natural disasters and risks that stem from human behavior. This is particularly true in China, which is experiencing rapid social, economic and political transitions. Since the 1970s, China's modernization process has been accompanied by the emergence of an increasing number of man-made risks, in particular environmental pollution, but until very recently, a risk management system did not exist in China. Society was woken up by a series of disasters and accidents, including SARS in 2003, followed by the explosion of avian flu and the chemical spill in the Songhua River in 2005. The last incident in particular finally kicked off the development of a national risk management system (specifically an emergency response system) in China. This paper analyses the status quo of the legislation, institutions and mechanisms for risk management in China and identifies opportunities and strategies for prioritizing and integrating environmental and health risks into the emerging system. The study concludes that although a series of alarming incidents have succeeded in putting risk management issues at the top of the public and political agenda, currently risk management in China can be characterized as reactive and compartmentalized, with a lack of prioritization and integration of policy efforts and resources. There is also a danger that the traditional state-centered approach may fail to create an effective risk management system, which requires improved transparency, accountability, and cross-sectoral coordination. The paper concludes with the proposal of strategies that might enable the environmental authorities to be more effective and reduce their marginalization and isolation.

Notes

^1. U. Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, trans. Mark Ritter, Introduction by Scott Lash and Brian Wynne (London: SAGE Publications, 1992 [originally published in 1986]), 260 pp.

^2. See William Leiss's review on Risk Society, Towards a New Modernity by Ulrich Beck, in the website of Canadian Journal of Sociology online, available at: http://www.ualberta.ca/∼cjscopy/articles/leiss.html (accessed 20 December 2008).

^*Lei Zhang is currently at the Environmental Policy Group in Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Lijin Zhong is in the College of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University, China

^3. N. Luhman, Risk, A Sociological Theory (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2005).

^4. As concluded by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, available at: http://www.millenniumassess ment.org (accessed 20 December 2008).

^5. R. T. Di Giulio and E. Monosson, ‘Interconnections between human and ecosystem health: opening lines of communication’, in R. T. Di Giulio and E. Monosson, eds, Interconnections Between Human and Ecosystem Health (London: Chapman and Hall, 1996), pp. 3–6.

^6. See WHO website, available at: http://www.who.int/phe/en/ (accessed 20 December 2008).

^7. R. D. Gupta, Environmental Pollution, Hazards and Control (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 2006); Jing Fang and Gerry Bloom, ‘China's rural health system and environment-related health risks’, Journal of Contemporary China 19(63), (2010).

^8. F. Pearce and S. Tombs, ‘Hegemony, risk and governance: “social regulation” and the American chemical industry’, Economy and Society 25, (1996), pp. 428–454; M. Gandy, ‘Rethinking the ecological leviathan: environmental regulation in an age of risk’, Global Environmental Change 9, (1999), pp. 59–69; W. Leiss, Smart Regulation and Risk Management, A Paper Prepared at the Request of the Privy Council Office and External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (Government of Canada External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation), available at: http://www.smartregulation.gc.ca; C. Hales et al., ‘Health aspects of the Millennium Impact Assessment’, Ecohealth 1, (2004), pp. 124–128; C. Butler, ‘Peering into the fog: ecologic change, human affairs, and the future’, Ecohealth 2, (2005), pp. 17–21; P. Weinstein, ‘Human health is harmed by ecosystem degradation, but does intervention prove it? A research challenge from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’, Ecohealth 2, (2005), pp. 228–230.

^9. A. Miller, ‘Ideology and environmental risk management’, The Environmentalist 5, (1985), pp. 21–30.

^10. R. E. Kasperson and J.X. Kasperson, ‘The social amplification and attenuation of risk’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 545, (1996), pp. 95–105.

^11. Robert and Lajtha, ‘A new approach to crisis management', Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 10(4), (2002), pp. 181–91.

^12. I. K. Richter et al., Risk Society and the Culture of Precaution (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006).

^13. R. Griffiths, ‘Acceptability and estimation in risk management’, Science and Public Policy, (1980), pp. 154–161.

^14. Kasperson and Kasperson, ‘The social amplification and attenuation of risk’.

^15. OECD, OECD Guidelines for Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response: Guidance for Industry (Including Management and Labour), Public Authorities, Communities and other Stakeholders (Paris: OECD, 2003).

^16. OECD, OECD Guidelines for Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response: Guidance for Industry (Including Management and Labour), Public Authorities, Communities and other Stakeholders (Paris: OECD, 2003); US EPA, 2004 Year in Review: Emergency Management—Prevention, Preparedness and Response (US EPA), available at: http://www.epa.gov.

^17. Gandy, ‘Rethinking the ecological leviathan’; Pearce and Tombs, ‘Hegemony, risk and governance’.

^18. Bartell S. Dale et al., ‘Systems approach to environmental security’, Ecohealth 1, (2004), pp. 119–123.

^19. J. Salter, ‘Risk management in a disaster management context’, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 5, (1997).

^20. Beck, Risk Society.

^21. L. Rinkevicius, ‘The ideology of ecological modernization in “double-risk” societies: a case-study of Lithuanian environmental policy’, in G. Spaargaren, A. P. J. Mol and F. H. Buttel, eds, Environmental Sociology and Global Modernity (London: SAGE Publications, 1999).

^22. L. Zhang, Ecologizing Industrialization in Chinese Small Towns, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Wageningen University, 2002.

^23. J. L. Turner and L. Zhi, ‘Chapter 9: Building a green civil society in China’, in State of the World 2006: Special Focus: China and India, available at: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4000 (accessed 20 December 2008).

^24. According to a Health Ministry survey in 30 cities and 78 counties, available at: http://planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/41947/story.htm (accessed 20 December 2008).

^25. China: Growth—and Growing Pains, available at: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/China:+Growth–and+growing+pains.-a0177072018 (accessed 20 December 2008).

^26. E. Economy, ‘The lessons of Harbin’, Time Asia Magazine 166, (5 December 2005), p. 23; J. L. Turner, working paper ‘China's environmental crisis: opening up opportunities for internal reform and international cooperation’ http://www.chinabalancesheet.org/Documents/PaperEnvironmentPaper.pdf (2006).

^27. H. Shi and L. Zhang, ‘Environmental governance of China's rapid industrialization’, Environmental Politics 15, (2006), pp. 272–293.

^28. US EPA, 2004 Year in Review.

^29. SEPA, News Release on Recent Environmental Accidents, available at: http//:www.zhb.gov.cn.

^30. The first city-level risk management system was started in Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in May 2002. Shanghai was the first among provincial level governments which started to formulate its overall emergency response plan in 2001: available at: http://www.enorth.com.cn (accessed 9 January 2006). However, these local practices did not attract political and public attention at that time.

^31. ‘The establishment of Chinese incident management system’, China Youth Daily, (8 May 2006).

^32. J. W. Chang, Rethinking Songhuajiang Pollution Incident: Problems in Chinese Environmental Legislation (China Institute of Law), available at: http//:www.iolaw.org.cn/.

^33. J. W. Chang, Problems and Countermeasures Regarding Legislation for Environmental Incident Management in China, available at: http//:www.h20-china.com.

^34. J. W. Chang, Foreign Experience in Environmental Legislation of Public Participation and Lessons for China (China Institute of Law), available at: http//:www.iolaw.org.cn.

^35. L. Zhang, A. P. J. Mol and G. Z. He, unpublished working paper ‘Environmental governance and information disclosure in China’, submitted to Environmental Science & Technology.

^36. See ‘Circular regarding the establishment of State Council Emergency Response Office’, Policy Paper No. 32 by the General Office of State Council, 10 April 2006.

^37. At the time of writing, 80 sectoral emergency response plans and 25 subject-based emergency response plans had been formulated. The National Emergency Response Plan for Environmental Incidents is one of the subject-based plans issued by the State Council. General Office of the State Council, ‘Emergency Response System Framed', 5 August, 2006, at: http://www1.www.gov.cn/ztzl/content355022.htm.

^38. For instance, the State Work Safety Supervision Administration (SWSSA) planned to add 80 staff in its Emergency Response Headquarters, which was established in January 2006. During the 11th ‘Five Year Plan’ of the SWSSA, 20.3 billion Yuan will be allocated to establish its vertical emergency response system, including six regional relief stations, 11 sectoral aid systems, 31 provincial headquarters and 333 municipal branches. See New Beijing Daily, (13 March 2006), available at: http://www.sina.com.cn.

^39. SEPA, Major Events of Environmental Protection 2002, available at: http//:www.sepa.gov.cn.

^40. According to a speech by Cai Wu, the director of the Information Office of State Council, available at: http://www.enorth.com.cn (accessed 3 December 2005).

^41. State Administration of Work Safety (2006).

^42. SEPA, ‘Circular on “Environmental incidents reporting measures” (trial)’, SEPA Policy Paper 59, (2006).

^43. ‘Will public participation help environmental protection?’, China Daily, (22 May 2006).

^44. ‘Protect the EPB directors’, People's Daily, (22 May 2006).

^45. ‘Protect the EPB directors’, People's Daily, (22 May 2006)

^46. Administration Permission Law requires administrative agencies to inform citizens of their right to express their opinions at public hearings regarding any government project that impacts them (Tang et al., 2005); Turner, ‘China's environmental crisis’.

^47. Turner, ‘China's environmental crisis’.

^48. See http://www.ics.lg.gov.cn/default.asp.

^49. SEPA, Announcement on Observing Environmental Emergency Response Rehearse, available at: http//:www.zhb.gov.cn; ‘SEPA switches on its Environmental Emergency Response Plan in Huai River Basin’, People's Daily, (30 April 2005); ‘Xie Zhenhua says: environmental indicators for performance evaluation of government officials’, Xinhuanet, (18 November 2005).

^50. Nanning City Emergency Response Center: The First in China, available at: http://www.nanning.gov.cn/ (accessed 9 August 2004).

^51. ‘China has earmarked 26.6 billion yuan to make water from its Songhua River drinkable’, Beijing Youth Daily, (8 January 2006).

^52. SEPA has just fewer than 300 staff.

^53. Turner, ‘China's environmental crisis’.

^54. Economy, ‘The lessons of Harbin’.

^55. ‘Environment as the hot issue during NPC and CPPCC’, China Environmental News, (7 March 2006).

^56. Lindsay Beck, China Warns of Disaster if Pollution not Curbed, available at: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/35596/story.htm (accessed 13 March 2006).

^57. ‘Guiding principles for environmental protection in China’, China Environmental News, (16 February 2006); SEPA, ‘Circular on “Key points of National Protection Work Plan 2006”’, SEPA Policy Paper 8, (2006).

^58. Chang, Problems and Countermeasures.

^59. Chang, Foreign Experience in Environmental Legislation; Environmental Law Network International, International Environmental Impact Assessment (Bingen: ELNI, 1997).

^60. ‘Xie Zhenhua says’, Xinhuanet.

^61. SEPA, ‘Circular on “Environmental incidents reporting measures” (trial)’.

^62. 2004 witnessed the shocking impact of the auditing reports published by the China National Office of the Auditor on sensitive issues like corruption among governmental officials, misuse of governmental budgets, etc. Many high ranking officials fell during this ‘auditing storm’. See: http://www.xinhuanet.com (accessed 28 December 2004).

^63. In 2005, more than 30 large-scale construction projects were stopped by SEPA because they failed to carry out Environmental Impact Assessment. Henceforth, SEPA increased its scrutiny of major potential polluters. These actions are labeled as ‘environmental storm’. See: http://www.xinhuanet.com (accessed 28 September 2005).

^64. Rob Swart ‘Security risks of global environmental changes', Global Environmental Change 6(3), (1996), pp. 187–92.

^65. SARS and Public Policy Project Team, Governmental Emergency Response Capacity Building—Thoughts on SARS Crisis (Public Policy Research Center of Northeastern Finance and Economics University, 2003).