OECD decries China enforcement of environment rules

BEIJING, July 17 (Reuters) China's efforts at environmental protection have been ineffective and inefficient largely because the central government has been unable to implement its policies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said.

Rapidly growing China is poised to overtake the United States as the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, and Beijing faces rising international calls to accept mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions from factories and vehicles.

Beijing should consider making the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) a ministry and strengthening its role in supervising local environmental protection bureaus, the Paris-based OECD, which groups 30 industrialised countries not including China, said in a report released today.

In addition, environmental laws and regulations should be compiled into an environmental code so they can be more easily understood, local leaders should be made more accountable for environmental performance and China should extend the use of economic incentives and penalties, it said.

''The biggest obstacles to environmental policy implementation are at the local level,'' the report said.

''There is a need for much stronger monitoring, inspection and enforcement capabilities to establish a better mix of incentives and sanctions. In addition, environmental expenditure needs to be made more efficiently and environmental policy instruments need to be made more effective.'' Chinese leaders acknowledge the huge challenges facing China, home to some of the world's 20 most polluted cities, as it struggles to meet energy efficiency goals in the face of unbridled economic growth.

About 460,000 Chinese die prematurely each year from breathing polluted air and drinking dirty water, according to a recent World Bank study.

The authorities are closing down dirty industrial plants, raising car fuel-efficiency standards and tweaking taxes to discourage energy-intensive production. China has also introduced higher drinking water standards, but state media reports severe pollution of China's vast lakes and rivers on an almost daily basis.

REUTERS JK VV0824