Without legal teeth, accountability system cannot improve air quality

A heavy sandstorm engulfs Beijing, with the air pollution reaching the hazardous level, May, 2017. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

TO TACKLE THE SMOG PROBLEM in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, especially in the winter, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will implement a "quantification accountability system" this year in the region's 28 cities and counties. The ministry will hold even the city's Party chief, the highest local authority, accountable if air pollution in his or her city rises above a certain level. Beijing News comments:

The environmental accountability system is not new. The ministry summons local governors to Beijing to explain their poor or unsatisfactory performances in environmental protection after coming to know－through its monitoring and supervision officials or mounting public pressure－that the areas under their jurisdictions have suffered environmental degradation.

The ministry's quantification accountability system, however, stipulates that not only the county government heads but also the Party chiefs of the cities with the worst air quality in the region will be held accountable. If the air pollution in those cities is worse than the corresponding period in the previous year, the cities' Party chiefs will face a ministry inquiry and have to explain why they failed to fulfill their environmental responsibility.

And if the improvement in the air quality is 60 percent lower than the goal set by the local government in its work report, the head of the city or county will be questioned; if it's 30 percent lower, the deputy head will be summoned for questioning.

The new mechanism is aimed at making the accountability system more transparent. But the system will remain toothless so long as environmental performance does not become a criterion for officials' promotion, or to demote or penalize them. Oral criticism of non-performing officials will not help protect the environment or prevent its further degradation.

Many officials have learned to take the summon-and-talk mechanism, even the severe warnings as routine practice. Which means just reprimanding them will not improve things on the environmental front.