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Traditional environmental protection mode is changing from
downstream and after-the-event management of the past to today's
whole-process supervision and control. The Clean Production
Promotion Law, and the Environment Impact Assessment Law, which
went into effect on January 1 and September 1, 2003 respectively,
provide guarantees to implement this strategy. The former requires
full control over all the production links -- from production
design, choice of energy resources and raw materials, technology,
equipment maintenance, to waste recycling -- so as to reduce
pollution and promote recycling of resources. The latter requires
all authorities at city level and above to make environmental
impact assessments when making plans for land use, construction and
development of districts, river basins and sea areas. In October
2002, the State Environmental Protection Administration authorized
the presence of specialized personnel at the 13 key national
projects to assess and control their environmental impact. These
projects included the Qinghai-Tibet railway and the West-East Gas
Transmission Pipeline.??
The combination of clean production, integrated utilization of
resources, eco-planning and sustainable consumption is an important
measure for environmental protection and ecological balance. It
aims to reduce and recycle waste and make it innocuous and to bring
about the smooth circulation of materials in the economic system
and natural eco-system. The first group of experimental units of
national circulating economy, including seven key industries (e.g.,
chemicals), four key fields (e.g., recovery and re-use of renewable
resources), 13 industrial zones (e.g., state- and provincial-level
development zones and agricultural exemplary zones), and ten
provinces/regions which are rich or deficient in resources in east,
central and west China. The circulating economy is to be explored
in key sectors such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals,
chemicals and construction materials, so as to perfect a renewable
resources recycling system and establish resource-recycling
mechanisms. This will give rise to groups of model industrial
cities developing circulating economy.?
