Abstract
Based on several published data, this paper clarifies changing and unchanging environmental issues in recent China. According to the results, air and water pollution emissions from industrial sector and CO2 emissions per GDP are steadily decreasing. On the other hand, diversified pollution sources and geographical expansion of pollutions are the bad side of changing issues. Automobiles become the major source of air pollution, and living and agricultural sectors become the major source of water pollution.
Emphasized unchanging issues are the high level of environmental deterioration and the government’s environmental policies which cannot manage it. Although the environmental investment is increasing, its ratio to GDP is not much increasing in recent years. The government policies to protect further environmental deteriorations do not seem to improve drastically.
The recent five-year plans set some environmental targets, which local governments have to attain. Moreover, the new Environmental Protection Law, enforced in 2015, defines the authority and responsibility of local governments and public participations for environmental issues. However, these are merely parts of the centralized environmental governance by the communist party and the central government. It is doubtful whether this biggest unchanging issue can properly control the environmental issues changing for the worse.
