BEIJING (AP) – People in China who want to take industries to task for fouling their surroundings have been rushing to file complaints and lawsuits this year in a test of legal reforms that toughens environmental penalties and makes clear that many public-interest groups have the right to sue.
Environmental watchdogs say people have filed hundreds of complaints with local governments under the new law launched in January, taking advantage of requirements that authorities respond to environmental complaints or risk having the cases be bumped up to higher levels of government. State media reports say at least one complaint resulted in immediate action, when authorities in eastern Shandong province shut down the coal furnace of a rubber factory that had bothered neighbors.
Environmental groups also have filed six lawsuits that have been accepted by Chinese courts, compared with one allowed during the same period last year. The new cases deal with everything from deforestation to illegal dumping by chemical plants, according to Zhang Boju, executive director of the nonprofit group Friends of Nature, which wrote two of the lawsuits. With a 300,000 yuan ($48,000) grant from Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba, Friends of Nature has set up a special fund to help other groups prepare their own lawsuits.
In a country where officials often act above the law while willfully ignoring whole swaths of regulations, many Chinese fed up with environmental neglect say the reforms appear to be making a difference. Still, experts say, their success will depend on the continued receptiveness of the courts and local officials under pressure to curb the country’s notorious pollution problems.
“The law brought predictability to the process, where before there was no certainty about what we could do,” Zhang said. “We plan to do more cases and we’re helping other environmental groups do that as well.”