To better protect the environment, another environmental protection law will be made in China to assess consequences of governmental policies or planning to environment.

The draft law was submitted Friday to the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) for deliberation. Wang Tao, vice-chairman of the NPC Environmental and Resources Protection Committee, gave a presentation on the draft law to the plenary meeting of the NPC Standing Committee Friday.

Wang said, currently the environmental consequence assessment system only covers construction projects. The proposed draft law expands the assessment to include governmental policy-making and planning. Therefore, the enacting of the law is sure to benefit the environment and the sustainable development of the national economy, he said.

The draft law states that governments at and above the city level should organize environmental consequence assessments and submit reports on such assessments when making policies or plans that might bring about negative environmental consequences.

(Xinhua 12/22/2000)