China’s green transparency?

By Yan Yan in Beijing

Let’s see what Chinadaily has said:

With the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information coming into force on May 1, all enterprises in China are expected to timely and accurately make public their ecological footprints.

This will bring to an end the embarrassing practice that multinational companies are virtually left free to shirk the standard operating procedures of their countries of origin by not publicizing pollution information.

Looks great, but let’s look a little closer.

On the one hand, at least it showed the government’s determination to crack down on pollution and make this issue more transparent.

But what Greenbang doesn’t’ like it is its pointed criticism toward multinational company. Who are the biggest polluters in China? I don’t think it’s the multinationals.

Since there are no official ecological -ootprint surveys of companies and manufacturers in China, there is no evidence to prove which one, multinational or local, should shoulder the major responsibility.

Why does it seem that polluters are all multinational companies and they are in the headlines most of the time?  Maybe, first of all, because it is easier for locals to do PR in China; secondly, isn’t it more eye-catching to point at a famous multinational company than an unknown small local one.

However, this is not to say the richer you are, the better you protect the environment; it is all about environmental consciousness and more importantly – the system that checks their environmental behaviour. Therefore, those environment-protection regulations should apply equally to all companies, no matter multinational or local.