By Chang Jiewen & Wu Ping, Research Institute of Resources and Environmental Policies, DRC & Wang Xin, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Research Report Special Issue No. 43 (Total 1518), 2016 2016-10-18

Abstract: The Party and government organizations shoulder the same responsibility for environmental protection and they would all face up to the accountability and evaluation system for ecological awareness. Besides, local governments are also responsible for the improvement of environmental quality. These constitute the theoretical basis as well as policy and legal basis for the establishment of a target-oriented accountability system over maritime ecological environmental protection in China. In view of the above-mentioned issues, there exist some problems in some places, such as imperfect legal basis, incomplete evaluation items, improper coordinated mechanism, and the lack of supervision measures. It is suggested that the target-oriented accountability system over the protection of maritime environment should be included in the Maritime Environmental Protection Law, and relevant administrative laws and regulations should be improved. Efforts should be made to formulate and implement the Regulations on Leading Cadres’ Accountability for Damages to Ecological Environment (for trial implementation). The maritime ecological environmental protection needs to be incorporated with the environmental protection or the construction of ecological civilization evaluation, and overall or individual evaluation can be made in light of the requirements. According to the detailed requirements for evaluation, ways for the division of responsibility and fulfillment of responsibilities should be made clear and major attention should be paid to the application of evaluation results. We need to establish a coordinated inter-regional and maritime-continental mechanism. We need to establish a notification system, making public the self inspection, supervision and spot checks results and strengthen the supervision by the National People's Congress and the public.

Key words: ecological environmental protection, marine, local governments, target-oriented responsibility system