Prime Minister Li Peng attended the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 and signed the global Agenda 21 document. The State Council adopted China's own Agenda 21, a white paper on 'Population Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century', in March 1994. Together with the United Nations Development Programme this was given an international launch in July 1994 aimed at attracting foreign funds to sixty priority projects. The Agenda 21 document essentially provides a national blueprint in terms of strategies and countermeasures for sustainable development. Developed since the late 1970s, there is now a fairly comprehensive set of environmental legislation in China covering air, water and more recently solid waste.
Legislation covers both general and sector specific regulations and standards.
These are set at national level, but local government authorities may set stricter standards. One of the most important principles of liability has been accepted, that is that the polluter pays. In addition to paying to repair environmental damage a polluter may also be liable to a fine, and increasingly harsh sentences and penalties are being imposed. All this interest and improvement of the regulatory framework gives rise to optimism, but it has to be qualified as anyone with first-hand experience of the Chinese scene is only too well aware. Enforcement at provincial and municipal level is traditionally weak, although there is increasing evidence of a tougher approach, especially in the richer coastal provinces.