A Chinese court has ruled in favour of two environmental groups under a new environmental law that allows NGOs to launch legal challenges for the first time.
In the first environmental protection case decided since the Environmental Protection Law took effect in January, the court found against an unapproved quarry in east China’s Fujian province. The defendants began developing the quarry in 2008 without the permission of the local authorities and caused extensive environmental damage. The court ordered the defendants to restore destroyed vegetation and pay 1.27 million yuan (186,000 euros) in compensation for the damage that resulted from the illegal mining expansion.
China’s revised Environmental Protection Law enables any NGO of sufficient size specialising in environmental protection for more than five years to launch legal challenges against polluters in the public interest. Environmental pollution is one of the great challenges that China must face during its next stage of economic and social development and has frequently come under international criticism for lax environmental laws and enforcement. The country has taken more proactive steps in recent years and it is believed that this landmark case will mark a turning point in public interest environmental litigation in China.
Legal NGO, ClientEarth, has suggested that it is now more difficult for those claiming damage to the environment in the UK to take a challenge than those in China. This is as a result of proposed changes to the cost and administration of such cases that could “chill the ability of citizens to bring cases.” In September, the UK Ministry of Justice launched a consultation on reforms to the costs-capping rules in environmental challenges that proposes doubling the initial costs to be paid by an NGO or individual applicant to £10,000 and £20,000 respectively, and reducing the initial cost cap for defendants (usually the Government) from £35,000 to £25,000. It is also proposed to allow courts to vary or remove any caps in appropriate cases.
Click here to read the new Environmental Protection Law.
Click here for a Guardian article on the issue.
Click here for UK’s proposal on Costs Protection in Environmental Claims.