Reform official assessment system to clear the air

If the government's action plan on environmental protection attributes pollution merely to backward economic growth models, without giving detailed and practical solutions, the plan will struggle to win support, said an article in the 21st Century Business Herald (excerpts below).

The Ministry of Environmental Protection said the State Council will issue an air pollution prevention and control action plan soon.

It is not difficult to verify which industries are heavy polluters. It is also an open secret that local environmental protection authorities have to follow orders from local governments, whose central task is to boost economic growth.

If the State Council's action plan on pollution points to local economic growth, it should at least state how to reform the official assessment system. Polluters are allowed because local officials need to record growth to win promotion.

The largest polluter is not the factory, but the problematic official assessment system, which magnifies human greed for vested interests but ignores human obligation to nature.