"Public to have more environmental input", 15th April 2015

The Ministry of Environmental Protection released a draft of public rights on Tuesday to encourage participation in projects and policies involving the environment...public can participate in making and revising policies and regulations, drawing up environmental impact statements, investigating cases of serious pollution that violate their environmental rights, supervising the emissions of major companies in polluting industries and other voluntary services...Ma Yong, deputy head of the law bureau in the All-China Environment Federation...said it did not clearly define people's environmental rights, which would be an obstacle for the public is taking action against some policies and projects...Though the draft urges authorities to make necessary information public, it's not easy to apply in practice...environmental authorities have set strict requirements on the identities of applicants...