(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-19 21:03

BEIJING  -- The Chinese public, while all eager for a cleaner environment, couldn't agree with each other on the government's new policy of a "green insurance system," with some hailing it as "genius" but others taking a wait-and-see attitude, a survey found.

The online poll, by the mass-circulation China Youth Daily and major Internet portal Tencent, found that although 64.5 percent of the 806 respondents "never heard of idea of green insurance system before," 51.7 percent showed support to it.

The policy, which aimed to have all industries with pollution risks insured, was introduced last month with an aim to better monitor polluting industries and help victims get immediate compensation.

Moreover, 34.9 percent of the repliers lauded it "a genius idea" as it "represented a market measure instead of a simple government regulation."

The policy put more weight on the enterprises' responsibility in reducing environment pollution, said Zhang Xiaofeng, a scholar from the Communication University of China. "While in business activities, the enterprises will be subject to not only supervision from the government, but also restraint from insurance companies," he said.

Different from the above supportive attitude, as the poll reveals, 45.2 percent of the participants took it as just a "new idea" of the government its own and 43.8 percent believed it "hard to implement."

Those who believed it "hard to implement" said environmental insurance was an extra expenditure for companies, making it no easy rule for companies to follow.

The survey also found 19.8 percent of the respondents believed the government should take sole responsibility for containing pollution, and 25 percent believed the "green insurance policy" unnecessary.

The system would be tried out this year in "companies that produce, sell, store, transport or use high-risk chemical products" and "petrochemical industries and dangerous waste disposing enterprises that are prone to heavy and serious pollution accidents", according to Pan Yue, vice director of SEPA, the country's top environmental watchdog.

The system will be implemented nationwide by 2015 after a trial period, according to a road map jointly set by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).

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