AMENDMENTS to China’s 1989 environmental protection law that will mean stiffer punishments for polluters have been submitted to the country’s legislature for deliberation, Xinhua reported late Monday.

    The National People’s Congress (NPC), will consider the amendments during its latest bi-monthly session, which runs until tomorrow, Xinhua said.

    The first change to the legislation in 25 years will give legal backing to the country’s newly declared war on pollution and formalize a pledge made last year to abandon a decades-old growth-at-all-costs economic model that has contaminated much of China’s water, skies and soil.

    The amendments, now in their fourth draft, are expected to enshrine environmental protection as the overriding priority of the Central Government, and will also include provisions to help the authorities impose rules on powerful industrial interests.

    The current draft gives environmental bureaus the power to close down and confiscate polluting equipment, and will also allow company bosses to be detained for up to 15 days if they fail to submit environmental impact assessments or refuse to comply with orders to suspend production, Xinhua said.

    It also includes legal protections for whistleblowers, the report added.

    Despite promises to change China’s economic model, the country’s top planning official told the legislature Monday that the focus on growth was still restraining efforts to cut emissions and energy use.

    Xu Shaoshi, the director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China still required a “stronger policy mechanism” to encourage change. (SD-Agencies)