By Zhang Liang, DRC

2016-12-6

I. The necessity of optimizing the environmental policy for the promotion of mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

China’s economic growth has entered a new stage of development. With the transition from the old to the new drivers of growth, promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation has become an inevitable choice for cultivating and creating new drivers. The intensified implementation of environmental protection policy will bring more opportunities for mass entrepreneurship and innovation and China’s environmental protection industry has huge space for improvement. II. The problems facing environmental protection policy for promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

First, the enterprises’ green development awareness needs to be further enhanced, and their ability to positively adapt to the environmental policy and seek policy support needs to be strengthened. Second, there are more restrictive and punitive policy measures but less incentive ones in the present environmental protection policy. Third, the market-based system has not been established, which affects the participation of private capital. Fourth, the policy support such as technology innovation in the field of environmental protection needs to be further implemented.

III. Policy options for improving the implementation of environmental policy relating to mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

First, we need to establish a policy mechanism to award the advanced units in order to encourage innovation and increase both encouragement and punishment incentive policy measures based on some restrictive policy regulations. Second, we need to accelerate the construction of carbon trading, water rights trading, pollution rights trading and other market trading mechanism, which is an important precondition to attract private capital. In addition, the carbon credit accumulated system should be implemented. Third, we need to accelerate the construction of the policy system to support innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of environmental protection, including environmental atmosphere, financial support, publicity and promotion, government procurement and the intensity of punishment. Fourth, we need to strengthen environmental supervision, establish accountability system, and raise the cost of illegal emissions through economic and legal means, so as to create a better environment for the development of environment-friendly enterprises.

For more detailed information, please refer to here.