China’s Air Pollution Rules: Compliance and Enforcement Lessons From Global Good Practices

November 2016
Citation:
46
ELR 10958
Issue
11
Author
Xiaopu Sun, Kenneth J. Markowitz, Durwood Zaelke, and Jin Wang

In recent years, air pollution issues have received unprecedented public attention in China. Partly for this reason, the Chinese government has made significant efforts toward reducing air pollution. However, compliance and enforcement will be key to cleaning up the air in China and around the globe. This Article discusses seven specific challenges to achieving effective compliance with and enforcement of the air pollution rules in China. In this regard, global good practices can be useful references for the Chinese government and other stakeholders. Yet such discussions and considerations are only truly useful when viewed and considered within the context of China’s unique rulemaking and governance systems, as well as its cultural background.

Xiaopu Sun is a Law Fellow at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Washington, D.C. Kenneth J. Markowitz, an attorney, is the President of Earthpace LLC and the Senior Clean Energy and Environmental Consultant with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld. Durwood Zaelke is the founder and President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Washington, D.C., and co-founder and co-director of the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara. Jin Wang is a Professor at Peking University Law School in Beijing, China.

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