China News Service, September 22. The Chief of the Eighth Prosecutors Office of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Hu Weilie, said at the press conference of the State Council Information Office held on the morning of the 22nd that the procuratorial organs will resolutely crack down on illegal discharge, dumping or disposal of toxic and harmful pollutants. Crimes that pollute the environment, such as discharging excessive pollutants.
Since January 2013, 310,765 people have been prosecuted for crimes of damaging environmental resources.
Hu Weilie said that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the procuratorial organs have adopted a series of pragmatic measures to implement the requirements of the Party Central Committee to "protect the ecological environment with the strictest system and the strictest rule of law" to help fight pollution prevention and control.
There are several ways of doing it:
First, insist on "zero tolerance."
Resolutely crack down on crimes that pollute the environment such as illegal discharge, dumping or disposal of toxic and harmful pollutants, and illegal discharge of pollutants exceeding the standard.
Since January 2013, 310,765 people have been prosecuted for crimes of damaging environmental resources.
On July 1, 2017, the procuratorial organs filed a public interest litigation system for full implementation. Ecological environment and resource protection are one of the four statutory areas of public interest litigation. The procuratorial organs regard this area as their top priority.
In the past four years, a total of 274,676 public interest litigation cases in this field have been filed and handled.
The use of public interest litigation to protect the green waters and green mountains has become a distinctive feature of China's public interest litigation. The institutional value of a "Chinese plan" for public interest protection has been fully demonstrated and has attracted the attention of the international community.
Second, dare to chew on "hard bones."
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the provincial procuratorate have stepped up their efforts to handle cases in the field of ecological environment and resource protection, and have directly filed 81 cases.
The first public interest litigation case directly filed and handled by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate was the Wanfeng Lake Basin ecological environment damage case, involving Guizhou, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces (regions), and five counties (cities). The violating subjects and administrative agencies involved a lot, making it difficult to rectify. Very big.
After the Supreme People’s Procuratorate opened the case, it urged all departments to coordinate and co-administer the case. After more than a year of joint efforts, visible pollution such as illegal net cages and floating houses on the lake that have not been remediated for a long time has been effectively cleaned up, and the clear water of the lake has been reproduced.
Recently, the Supreme People’s Prosecutor’s case on the ecological environment damage project in the Nansi Lake Basin has also made initial progress. It has promoted the closure of 99 sewage outlets illegally set up by industrial enterprises, and disposed of more than 21,000 tons of solid and hazardous waste, including the removal of illegally along the lake. Construction, disposal of domestic garbage along the lake, treatment of black and smelly water bodies, removal of illegal breeding, and closure of enterprises in accordance with the law have achieved initial results.
Third, we must pay attention to the “big protection”. Strengthen system thinking and promote the coordinated and co-governance of the entire river basin. In January 2019, the Supreme Procuratorate and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Cooperation and Cooperation in Procuratorial Public Interest Litigations and Fighting Pollution Prevention and Control in accordance with the law." In response to the destruction of the ecological environment of the Yangtze River, the Supreme Procuratorate also focused on listing and supervising a number of public interest litigation cases, and explored the establishment of a cross-regional coordination mechanism for procuratorial investigations in 11 provinces and cities along the Yangtze River, and promoted the formation of a "game of chess" in the Yangtze River protection inspection. In response to the damage to the ecological environment of the Yellow River and threats to the safety of flood discharge, the Ministry of Water Resources carried out a special action of "Hand in hand to clear the four chaos and protect the Mother River", and explore the "River Chief + Prosecutor General" work model. A total of 1,097 public interest litigation cases have been filed by the procuratorial organs along the Yellow River. In February 2019, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate also deployed procuratorial organs in 11 coastal provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities to carry out special supervision of public interest litigation for “protecting the ocean” and filed 1,773 public interest litigation cases, which further strengthened the procuratorial barrier to protect the marine ecological environment and marine resources. . Public procuratorial public interest litigation in the field of ecological protection continues to expand. In addition to traditional environmental damage, it has also further expanded to wildlife protection and ancient village protection. A series of typical cases and guiding cases have also been released to guide local areas to better use procuratorial public interest litigation. Power to guard the green waters and green mountains.