By Wang Haiqin, Gao Shiji and Huang Junyong, Research Institute of Resources and Environment Policies, DRC

Research Report, No.102, 2021 (Total 6167) 2021-4-27

Abstract: Self-monitoring on discharged pollutants is the legislative obligation for pollution discharge enterprises and the basis for them to abide by environmental laws and regulations. Recently, DRC research group made a survey on the self-monitoring performance among 455 selected pollution discharge enterprises in China. It is founded that since the 18th CPC National Congress held in 2012, enterprises in China have made positive efforts in self-monitoring on pollution discharge, the number of enterprises involved in this drive is increasing and the monitored data has become more timely, precise and authentic. Yet there are some differences between state-owned enterprises (SOEs), private ones and foreign-funded ones in their respective endeavor and outcomes in self-monitoring pollutants. Among them, SOEs revealed the best performance. Meanwhile, the incentive mechanism and professional training provided by the government are inadequate in terms of self-monitoring for enterprises, while the enterprises themselves also lack environmental protection professionals and full understanding of related policies. To enhance the capability of pollution discharge enterprises on self-monitoring from the average level to a higher level, it is necessary for us to drive deeper the ecological and environmental monitoring institutional reform, take category-based measures and apply targeted policies tailored to different pollution discharge enterprises with different features and amount of pollutants.

Keywords: pollution discharge enterprises, environmental monitoring, environmental protection