China increases environmental investment for people's health right

Funds used for China's environmental protection is being increased, a measure of the country to safeguard people's right to a healthy and clean environment, a report said on Monday. The Chinese government provided some 338.3 billion yuan in 2013 for conserving energy and protecting the environment, seeing a 14.2 percent year-on-year growth, according to the report titled "Progress in China's Human Rights in 2013," which was released by the State Council Information Office. The Chinese government continued to promote ecological progress in 2013, constantly improving environmental protection systems and enhancing environmental management and ecosystem preservation, the report said. With 135 newly issued items in 2013, China had a total of 1,499 items of national criteria for environmental protection currently in effect, the report said. Inspection teams for the implementation of the strictest management system of water resources were set up in 31 provincial-level regions, with the local government heads assuming responsibility, it said. Moreover, when 496 monitoring stations in 74 cities gave real-time updates of monitoring data of six pollutants, including fine particles (PM2.5 particles), a second batch of 116 cities were also building pollutant-monitoring stations and began providing real-time updates, it said. The emissions of four major pollutants- organic pollutants (measured by chemical oxygen demand), ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and NOx-decreased by 2.93 percent, 3.14 percent, 3.48 percent and 4.72 percent, respectively, compared with 2012. The daily sewage treatment capacity in towns increased by 11.94 million tons in 2013, and 84.8 percent of the garbage in cities at all levels was made harmless after treatment, according to the report. Specialized environmental-protection inspections are being conducted, and environmental crimes are being cracked down on, it said. Some 1.83 million law-enforcement personnel were sent to inspect 710,000 enterprises in 2013, investigating and dealing with 6,499 cases of environmental violation and illegal activities, according to the document. The revised Civil Procedure Law, which went into force January 1, 2013, established the environment-related public interest litigation system. In 2013, people's courts at all levels accepted and heard 134 environmental cases, with 104 concluded, and applied criminal sanctions to 139 persons.