Amazing news coming out of China that it is willing to impose the harshest possible penalty on polluters.
South China Sun
The mainland will lower the threshold for convicting polluters and punish them more severely as part of efforts by the new leadership to address growing public anger over environmental degradation.
The [new judicial] interpretation … states that a person can be convicted if he or she causes pollution that seriously injures a person. Previously, an incident would have had to result in a death before a person was convicted.
And only one death arising from an incident will be enough to see a sentence increased, rather than three deaths.
[Court spokesman Sun Jungong] said the lowering of the threshold for convicting polluters demonstrated authorities’ determination to “fight and deter environmental crimes”. …
[T]he interpretation details 14 activities that will be considered “crimes of impairing the protection of the environment and resources”.
Dumping radioactive substances into sources of drinking water and nature reserves, and incidents that poison more than 30 people or force more than 5,000 people to be evacuated, will be considered environmental pollution crimes for the first time.
Urban Pollution China by Bennett Ho, flickr
China has also recenting begun a Carbon Trading Scheme.