context: Falsification of environmental reporting by third-party agencies has become a pressing issue in recent years, including in the national carbon market. EIAs are the primary tool of environmental governance in development, yet balancing environmental concerns with industrial growth has proven tricky. A lack of clear guidance, and a corresponding push to simplify environmental impact assessment requirements for energy and transport sectors, means provinces are still able to approve polluting projects. Following the move to simplify EIAs for major projects in key industries in 2022, a 2023 'Opinions' policy sought to streamline EIA processes across the board by allowing bundled approvals and exempting certain small projects. From an enforcement standpoint, falsification of EIAs became a criminal offence in 2021, but few cases have been brought to trial despite the proliferation of misconduct; most instances of fraud just end up with the individuals being 'blacklisted'.
Revelations of third-party organisations falsifying EIAS (environmental impact assessments) and monitoring data have come to light in recent years, says Huang Runqiu 黄润秋 MEE (Ministry of Ecology and Environment) minister at a Two Sessions press conference on 8 March 2024.
Huang highlighted the case of Shandong Jinhua’s ‘high-yield’ environmental assessor, which came to light in 2021. The company used its affiliation with EIA engineers to forge some 48 EIA reports and 879 report forms.
Regulators have discovered a plethora of different fraudulent activities, including fabrication of data for EIA documents, forging of signatures, replacement of samples during environmental monitoring and interference with sampling investigations.
Over the past three years, records show
- 2,260 third-party environmental protection service agencies have been investigated and handled
- 4,255 cases of corporate fraud in environmental self monitoring were investigated, with 930 suspected illegal cases transferred to relevant departments
To solve the issue, MEE worked with SPC (Supreme People’s Court) and MPS (Ministry of Public Security) to improve the efficiency of law enforcement, to better handle cases and reform the legal system. Top judicial interpretations clarified conviction and sentencing standards for third-party environmental service agencies who provide false documents during EIA, monitoring or carbon emissions inspection processes.
MEE will continue to carry out special actions to crack down on environmental fraud, notes Huang, outlining the importance of big data and artificial intelligence in strengthening supervision.
Caixin previously reported that the phenomenon of ‘high yield environmental assessors’ is somewhat inevitable, due to the needs of both EIA agencies and construction units and the lack of supervision behind the environmental assessment system.