China to enhance environmental protection legislation

BEIJING -- China's top legislature will "respond positively" to the public concerns on environmental issues, a spokeswoman said at a press conference on Monday.

The National People's Congress (NPC) will revise and improve the Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Air Pollution and the Environmental Protection Law, said Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the first session of the 12th NPC, which kicks off on March 5.

Other measures include enhancing supervision and scrutiny of law enforcement, making environmental protection efforts and results part of the performance evaluations of local governments, and drawing up specific control measures on major pollutants and vehicle emissions, she said.

Fu admitted that China faces a grave environmental protection situation and there is room to improve laws in this regard.

For instance, environment-related laws mostly target the protection and management of individual resources, not an entire ecosystem, she said.

China adopted its first environmental law in 1979 and has enacted over 30 such laws to date.