Legislation for Serious Pollution Emergency Response：Perspectives on Fighting Haze Pollution〔＊〕

Shao Daoping

（1.Law School Anhui University，Hefei Anhui 230601；2.Law School Anhui University of Finance and Economics，Bengbu Anhui 233030）

Ⅰ.Legal basis for China’s serious air pollution emergency response laws

In the legislation of environmental protection laws，the deficiency of a topdown framework results in incompatibilities or conflicts in the existing environmental protection laws about serious pollution emergency response.Therefore，the legislation of serious pollution emergency response should focus on the compatibility of air pollution control laws and other laws，and also on improving dedicated environmental protection laws.First of all，the compatibility of air pollution control laws and “Energy Law”，“Cleaner Production Promotion Law”，“Sustainable Economy Promotion Law”and other existing laws about air pollution control.Secondly，in order to deal with frequent serious haze pollution，“Environmental Impact Assessment Law”，“Carbon Emissions Trading Law”and other environmental protection laws should be formulated.

Ⅱ.Legal system design for serious pollution emergency response in China

1.Refinement of warning level and early warning

Currently，the classification of serious pollution weather emergency warning is on a scale of 4colors：blue，yellow，orange and red.According to “Guiding Principles on Promoting Serious Pollution Emergency Response”，when blue warning is released，message should be sent to remind the public of health protection，encouraging the public to consciously take measures to mitigate the impact of pollution.When a yellow-and-above warning is announced，according to the level of pollution，enterprises should shut down or reduce production and measures of cutting down pollutions should be taken，such as coal substitution，traffic control，dust control，outdoor barbecue and straw burning control，meteorological intervention.If a red warning is released，outdoor activities should be ceased and schools and kindergartens should suspend lessons.

On the one hand，from the emergency measures required to be taken when blue warning is released，it can be seen that when air quality reaches blue-warning level，public health has been jeopardized.But in practice，between October 1，2013and 30th April 2014，a total of 181serious pollution warnings were issued in China.None of them was red alert，which implicates that governments are cautious when issuing a blue waring.The 4-level classification of serious pollution is not fine and reasonable enough.We believe that China’s serious air pollution should be classified into more levels based on air quality index （AQI）.First，a warning level should be set before air quality reaches the level of causing harm to health so that protective measures can be taken before blue warning is released.Second，between orange and red levels，a warning level should be added to mitigate influences caused after red warning is released.Thirdly，due to different economic development statuses and air qualities，different standards should be set for different regions.Finally，governments should improve monitoring and early warning work so that warnings can be released beforehand and the public，businesses and the whole society will have more time to prepare for serious pollution emergency.

2.Improving rationality and practicability of system for emergency plans

Serious pollution emergency plan system is mainly designed，on the basis of environmental risk assessment and analysis，for timely and effective response to serious pollution，through predetermined emergency plans.The following aspects are important for improving the rationality and practicability of emergency plans.Firstly，controlling the release of major pollutants and taking effective measures to reduce pollution on the basis of assessing air quality and measuring the contribution rate of major pollutants.Secondly，devising different plans according to different levels of warning and stating clearly the key issues of“who”，“when”and“how”to ensure the practicability of plans.Thirdly，improving compatibility of plans between neighbor regions and different levels of governments to ensure more scientific and creative roles of the system.Lastly，carrying out a dynamic management of emergency plans and making adjustments on emergency measures according to severity of pollution and changes in different regions.

3.Early warning

Haze pollution and other emergencies are clearly different in their forming and characteristics.Before haze pollution occurs，air quality is close to the critical point of causing haze.During this stage，the emission of atmospheric pollutants plays vital role in in leading to haze.Therefore，serious air pollution response should focus not only on measures taken after the occurrence of serious pollution，but also measures before haze occurs to slow down the accumulation of air pollutants to better protect people’s health.Therefore，traditional way of emergency response for serious air pollution in China should be changed.Emergency measures of pollution control should be taken before serious pollution occurs，based on air quality assessment and refined measurement for pollution warning，and the risk of having haze pollution will be reduced.During aperiod when hazes happen often，emergency response beforehand is urgently needed to reduce the possibility of having haze pollution.It is a key in emergency response to pollution and also an important part of laws for emergency response.

4.Co-related response mechanism

Presently，serious pollution emergency response in China is locally government-dominated，which are restricted to administrative areas.But environmental issues，especially serious air pollution，are often in regions across multiple administrations.In order to avoid the limitations of administrative-mode response，a creative，new mechanism is needed to enable local governments to think globally，to consider the overall interests of environment，to manage as a whole and to cooperate in serious air pollution warning and emergency response，for the ultimate purpose of improving air quality.In the new “Air Pollution Control Law”of China，it stipulates a mechanism for joint efforts in key regions，which is the legal basis for joint response to serious pollution emergency.It is a significant progress in legislation for serious pollution emergency response.

However，improvements of the response mechanism are still needed in the following aspects.First，the mechanism should be locally administrative and cooperative between administrations at the same time to ensure the joint efforts among departments within an administration and between different administrations.Secondly，categories of regions should be defined according to economic statuses and air quality levels.A “common but differentiated”standard of pollu-tants emission and environmental quality should be adopted for different regions.Finally，regional ecological compensation mechanism should be established to ensure interest balance between regions；regions paying costs to protect environment should be compensated by regions which gain interest.This will not only avoid the drawbacks of the traditional mode of emergency management，but also significantly reduce the cost of air pollution control and improve cooperation and compatibility within a region or between regions.

Ⅲ.Improving peripheral systems

Aside from improving current legal system for environmental emergency response，the establishment of heavy air pollution legal system requires establishing and improving peripheral systems，which include：

Firstly，controlling both total amount of carbon emissions and energy consumption.Haze pollution is formed through a long-term accumulation of air pollution and air quality improvement will also be a long and gradual process.Haze pollution control relies on reducing pollutant emissions.Although emergency measures for serious air pollution can reduce pollutants in air and shorten the duration of pollution，emission reduction is the fundamental way.Carbon emissions and total energy consumption should be controlled in China to keep them within a reasonable range in different regions，based on scientific and accurate measurement of air quality，so that air pollutants emission is reduced gradually.

Secondly，improving market mechanism.Market mechanism mainly refers to carbon emissions trading and third-party governance for environmental pollution.Carbon emissions trading is a solution to external problems of environment through market mechanism，which is one of the most effective means to climate change and air pollution in China.Third-party governance of pollution refers to a mechanism in which enterprises signing contracts with third-party professional environmental service companies to buy pollution control service and reduce pollutants emission.The third-party mechanism is not only beneficial to the supervision on enterprises from environment supervision departments，but also beneficial to improving pollution control efficiency.

Third，encouraging activities from the public.Effective serious pollution emergency response cannot be done without active participation and cooperation of the public.We suggest that the following work should be done in improving public participation in the system：Firstly，education should be extended to enhance public awareness of the causes，hazards and control measures of haze pollution.As haze pollution is widespread，no one can be excluded from the influences.They will actively join pollution control.Secondly，the entities for dealing with serious pollution should be extended from governments to the public，businesses and social organizations so that more efforts can be put to haze pollution control.Thirdly，the public should be encouraged to participate in serious pollution emergency response.They should actively participate in emergency response not only after the release of air quality warning but through the entire process of emergency plans devising and emergency response.

In addition，the establishment of pollution emergency response legal system requires the improvements of other acts，such as environmental public interest litigation，environmental liability insurance，carbon emission standards，information disclosure and ecological compensation etc.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

Haze pollution has become a frequent incident in China.Traditional thinking of emergency response is incompatible with the situation we are facing.Moreover，due to environmental negative externalities caused by rapid economic development in recent years，China has stepped into a risk society where environmental risks may arise at any time.Therefore，we should build a legal system for serious pollution emergency response and the traditional idea of emergency response should be changed to meet the needs of ecology and environmental protection so that we can have a green homeland with blue skyand clean water.

Notes：

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