Laws of the People's Republic of China

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

Order of the President of the People's Republic of China

No.72

Law of the People's Republic of China on Promoting Clean Production has been adopted at the 28th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on June 29, 2002, and shall enter into force as of January 1, 2003.

Jiang Zemin, President of the People's Republic of China

June 29, 2002

Law of the People's Republic of China on Promoting Clean Production ContentsChapter I General Principles

Chapter II Promotion of Clean Production

Chapter III Implementation of Clean Production

Chapter IV Incentives

Chapter V Legal Liabilities

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Principles

Article 1

The present law has been enacted for the purpose of promoting clean production, raising the efficiency of utilizing resources, reducing and avoiding the production of pollutants, protecting and improving the environment, ensuring the health of people, and promoting the sustainable development of economy and society.

Article 2

The term "clean productions" as mentioned in the present law refers to reducing pollution from the source, raising the efficiency of utilizing the resources, reducing or avoiding the production and emission of pollutants in the process of production, services and using products by means of incessantly improving designs, using clean energy and raw materials, adopting advanced techniques, technologies and equipments, improving management, making comprehensive utilizations, and other measures so as to alleviating or eliminating the harm done to the health of the human being and the environment.

Article 3

The entities that are engaged in the activities of production and services and the departments in charge of relevant administration within the territory of the people's republic of China shall organize and carry out clean productions according to the provisions of the present law.

Article 4

The state encourages and promotes clean production. The State Council and the local people's governments on the county level and above shall incorporate clean production into the programs of national economy and social development as well as the plans of environmental protection, utilization of resources, industrial progress, and regional development, etc.

Article 5

The administrative department of economy and trade under the State Council shall be responsible for organizing and conciliating the promotion of clean production within the whole country. The administrative departments of environmental protection, planning, science and technology, agriculture, construction, water conservancy, and quality and technological supervision, etc. shall, according to their respective functions and duties, be responsible for the promotion of clean production.

The people's governments on the county level and above shall be responsible for the promotion of the clean production within their respective administrative jurisdictions. The administrative department of economy and trade of the people's governments on the county level and above shall be responsible for organizing and conciliating the promotion of clean production within their respective administrative jurisdictions. The administrative departments of the people's governments on the county level and above in charge of environmental protection, planning, science and technology, agriculture, construction, water conservancy, and quality and technological supervision, etc. shall be responsible for the relevant promotion of clean production according to their specific functions and duties.

Article 6

The state encourages the scientific research, technological development and international cooperation concerning clean production, organizes the publicity and popularization of knowledge about clean production, and promotes the application of the technologies for clean production.

The state encourages social bodies and the general public to participate in the publicity, education, promotion, implementation and supervision of clean production.

Chapter II Promotion of Clean Production

Article 7

The State Council shall formulate financial and taxation policies that can contribute to the implementation of clean production.

The State Council and the relevant administrative departments thereof as well as the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall formulate industrial policies and policies regarding technological development and application that can contribute to the implementation of clean production.

Article 8

The administrative department of economy and trade of the people's governments on the county level and above shall, in collaboration with the administrative departments of environmental protection, planning, science and technology, agriculture, construction, water conservancy, etc., work out plans for the promotion of clean production.

Article 9

The people's governments on the county level and above shall reasonably plan the economic distribution of their respective administrative jurisdictions, readjust their industrial structures, develop recurrent economies, promote the cooperation of the enterprises in the field of resources and the comprehensive utilization of wastes, etc. so as to achieve the efficient and recurrent utilization of resources.

Article 10

The administrative departments of economy and trade, environmental protection, planning, science and technology, agriculture, etc. of the State Council as well as the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall organize and support the establishment of information systems of clean production and systems of technological consultation services so as to provide to the general public the methods and technologies of clean production, information and services concerning the demand and supply of reproducible wastes, and the policies concerning clean production, etc.

Article 11

The administrative department of economy and trade of the State Council publishes, in collaboration with other administrative department of the State Council, catalogues regularly about the orientation of technologies, techniques, equipments and products of clean production.

The administrative departments of economy and trade of the State Council and the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and the municipalities directly under the Central Government as well as the administrative departments of environmental protection, agriculture, and construction, etc. organize the compilation of clean production guidelines and technical brochures about their respective trade or region so as to guide the implementation of clean production.

Article 12

The production technologies, techniques, equipments and products that are lagged behind, wasting resources or seriously polluting the environment shall be eliminated during prescribed time periods. The administrative departments of economy and trade of the State Council, in collaboration with other relevant administrative departments of the State Council, formulates and publishes catalogues of the production technologies, techniques, equipments and products to be eliminated within prescribed time periods.

Article 13

The relevant administrative departments of the State Council may, where it is necessary, approve the establishment of product labels of saving energy, saving water, or recurrent utilization of wastes, and formulate corresponding standards according to the relevant provisions of the state.

Article 14

The administrative departments of science and technology of the people's governments on the county level and above as other relevant administrative departments shall guide and support the research and development of clean production technologies and products that can contribute to the protection of the environment and resources as well as the demonstration and popularization of clean production technologies.

Article 15

The administrative department of education of the State Council shall incorporate the courses of clean production technologies and management into the system of higher education, vocational education and technological training.

The relevant administrative department of the people's governments on the county level and above organize and conduct the publicity and training of clean production so as to enhance the consciousness of the working staff of the state organs, the management personnel of enterprises and the general public about clean production, and train management and technical people of clean production.

The entities of news and publication, broadcasting, movie and television, culture, etc. as well as other relevant social bodies shall make good use of their respective advantages in the publicity of clean production.

Article 16

The people's government at all levels shall take priority in purchasing the products that are conducive to the protection of the environment and resources, including saving energy, saving water and making recurrent utiliztion of wastes, etc.

The people's government at all levels shall encourage, by means of publicity and education and other measures, the general public to buy and use the products that are conducive to the protection of the environment and resources, including saving energy, saving water, and making recurrent utilization of wastes, etc.

Article 17

The administrative departments of environmental protection of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall lay emphasis on the supervision of the implementation of clean production. They may, according to the demand of promoting clean production and according to the emission of pollutants by the enterprises, publish the names of the enterprises whose emission of pollutants has surpassed the standards or whose total emission of pollutants has surpassed the prescribed limits in the major mass media of the local places so as to provide a basis for the general public to supervise the implementation of clean production by the enterprises.

Chapter III Implementation of Clean Production

Article 18

For the projects of new building, rebuilding and expanded building, appraisals shall be made with regard to the effects upon the environment, analytical argumentations shall be made about the use of raw materials, consumption of resources, comprehensive utilization of resources, and the generation and disposal of pollutants, etc., and priority shall be placed on the adoption of clean production technologies, techniques and equipments that have high use rate of resources and generating few pollutants.

Article 19

Enterprises shall, in their technological renovations, adopt the following clean production measures:

1)

Using the raw materials that are innocuous and harmless or slightly noxious and harmful to replace the raw materials that are seriously noxious and harmful;

2)

Using the techniques and equipments that have high use rate of resources and generate few pollutants to replace the techniques and equipments that have low use rate of resources and generate plenty of pollutants;

3)

Making comprehensive or recurrent use of the waste things, waste water, and waste heat, etc. produced in the process of production;

4)

Using the pollution-preventing technologies that have come to the national or local standards about the emission of pollutants and the indexes for controlling the total emission of pollutants.

Article 20

For the design of products and packages, the effects thereof upon the health of the human beings and the environment within their life cycles shall be taken into consideration, and priority shall be placed on the schemes that are innocuous, harmless, easily degrading and convenient for recurrent utilization.

Enterprises shall package their products in reasonable ways so as to reduce the excessive use of packaging materials and the generation of packaging wastes.

Article 21

The enterprises that manufacture large electromechanical devices, powered vehicles and other products designated by the administrative department of economy and trade of the State Council shall follow the technical specifications formulated by the administrative department of standardization of the State Council or the institutions authorized thereby, and place a mark of standard of the material composition on the key component parts of the products.

Article 22

Agricultural producers shall use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural films and feed additives in a scientific way and improve their planting and cultivation techniques so as to achieve the goal of producing quality and harmless agricultural products, taking the wastes of agricultural production as resources, and preventing agricultural environmental pollution.

It shall be prohibited to use noxious or harmful wastes as fertilizers or for creating farmlands.

Article 23

The service enterprises such as restaurants, entertainment, hotels, etc. shall use the technologies and equipments that are good for saving energy, water and other environmental protection purposes, reduce or stop the use of consumer goods that waste resources or polluting the environment.

Article 24

For construction projects, the construction designs and schemes, construction and decoration materials, construction component parts and equipments used shall be good for the protection of the environment and resources.

The construction and decoration materials must conform to the national standards. It shall be prohibited to produce, sell and use noxious or harmful construction and decoration materials that have surpassed the national standards.

Article 25

In the prospecting and mining of mineral resources, the methods and techniques that are good for reasonably using the resources, protecting the environment and preventing pollution shall be used so as to improve the use of resources.

Article 26

The enterprises shall, where the economic and technological conditions thereof allow, make recurrent use of the waste things or waste heat generated in the process of production and providing services by themselves or transfer them to other enterprises or individuals that have the conditions for recurrent use.

Article 27

The enterprises that produce or sell those products or packages that are listed in the catalogues of obligatory reclaimation shall reclaim the products and packages after they have been discarded as useless or have been used.

The catalogues and specific measures for the obligatory reclaimation of products and packages shall be formulated by the administrative department of economy and trade of the State Council.

Article 28

Enterprises shall monitor the consumption of resources and the generation of wastes in the process of production and providing services, and where it is necessary, shall carry out clean production checks over their production and services.

The enterprises whose emission of pollutants has surpassed the national or local standards or has surpassed the indexes for controlling the total emission of pollutants as ratified by the relevant local people's governments shall carry out clean production checks.

The enterprises that use noxious or harmful raw materials in their productions or emit noxious or harmful matters in the process of production shall carry out regular clean production checks, and report the result of checks to the administrative departments of environmental protection and the administrative departments of economy and trade of the local people's governments where they are situated.

The measures for the checks of clean production shall be formulated by the administrative department of economy and trade of the State Council in collaboration with the administrative department of environmental protection of the State Council.

Article 29

The enterprises may, on the basis of coming up to the national and local standards for emitting pollutants, enter into agreements with the competent administrative departments of economy and trade and the administrative departments of environmental protection for further saving resources and reducing the emission of pollutants. The administrative departments of economy and trade and the administrative departments of environmental protection concerned shall publish the names of the enterprises concerned and the achievements of saving resources and preventing and controlling pollutions in the major mass media of the local places.

Article 30

The enterprises may, on the basis of willingness, apply, according to the provisions of the state concerning the authentication of environmental management system, to the authentication institutions authorized by the authentication ratification and supervision authorities of the state for authentication so as to improve their clean production by way of the authentication of the environmental management system.

Article 31

The enterprises which have been included in the list of seriously polluting enterprises shall, according to the provisions of Article 17 of the present law, publish their emission of major pollutants according to the provisions of the administrative department of environmental protection of the State Council and accept the supervision of the general public.

Chapter IV Incentives

Article 32

The system of commending and rewarding clean productions shall be established by the state. The entities and individuals that have made outstanding achievements in the work of clean productions shall be commended and rewarded by the people's government.

Article 33

The research, demonstration and training projects of clean production, the key national technological renovation projects for implementing clean production as well as the technological renovation projects that have been specified in the agreements for voluntarily reducing the emission of pollutants concluded according to the provisions of Article 29 of the present law shall be incorporated into the scope of support with special funds for technological progress arranged by the public fiscal departments of the State Council or the people's government on the county level or above.

Article 34

Appropriate sums of money shall be taken from the funds established according to the provisions of the state for the development of medium-sized and small enterprises for supporting the medium-sized and small enterprises to implement clean production according to their actual needs.

Article 35

The enterprises that make products with wastes or reclaim raw materials from wastes shall enjoy the preferential treatment of VAT reductions or exemptions by the taxation authorities according to the relevant provisions of the state.

Article 36

The expenses of the enterprises for the check and training of clean productions may be taken as operational costs of the enterprises.

Chapter V Legal Liabilities

Article 37

Any one who violates the provisions of Article 21 of the present law by failing to marking the material composition of the products or failing to mark truthfully shall be ordered by the administrative department of quality and technological supervision of the people's government on the county level or above to mend up within a prescribed time period. If it refuses to mend up, it shall be imposed upon a fine of not more than 50,000 yuan.

Article 38

Any one who violates the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 24 of the present law by producing or selling noxious or harmful construction or decoration materials that surpass the national standards shall be subject to administrative, civil or criminal liabilities according to the product quality law and other civil and criminal statutory provisions.

Article 39

Any one who violates the provisions of paragraph 1 of Article 27 of the present law by failing to perform its duty of reclaiming its products or packages shall be ordered by the administrative department of economy and trade of the local people's government on the county level or above to mend up within a prescribed time period. If it refuses to mend up, it shall be imposed upon a fine of not more than 100,000 yuan.

Article 40

Any one who violates the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 28 of the present law by failing to implementing clean production checks or, though has implemented clean production checks, failing to report truthfully the result of checks shall be ordered by the administrative department of environmental protection of the local people's government on the county level or above to mend up within a prescribed time period. If it refuses to mend up, it shall be imposed upon a fine of not more than 100,000 yuan.

Article 41

In case any one violates the provisions of Article 31 by failing to publish or failing to publish according to the prescribed requirements its emission of pollutants, the emission of pollutants thereby shall be published by the administrative department of environmental protection of the local people's government on the county level or above, and it may be imposed upon a fine of not more than 100,000 yuan.

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Article 42

The present law shall enter into force as of January 1, 2003.