Environmental information disclosure, from the disclosure subject, includes environmental information disclosure made or obtained by the government and its relevant departments, as well as information disclosure related to environmental impact formed by enterprises and institutions in the process of production, operation and management services. The main basis for enterprises and institutions to disclose environmental information is Articles 17 and 36 of the Law on the Promotion of Cleaner Production, as well as the Measures for Environmental Information Disclosure (Trial) promulgated and implemented by the former State Environmental Protection Administration in 2008 and the Measures for Self-monitoring and Information Disclosure of State Key Monitoring Enterprises (Trial) issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on 20 13. The Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information (for Trial Implementation) has set up a special chapter for the disclosure of environmental information of enterprises, mainly to encourage enterprises to voluntarily disclose it. The environmental information of enterprises that require compulsory disclosure is very limited. Only heavily polluting enterprises whose pollutant emissions exceed national or local emission standards or whose total pollutant emissions exceed the total emission control targets approved by local people's governments are required to disclose their environmental behavior information. The contents disclosed include the name, address, legal representative, name of major pollutants, discharge mode, discharge concentration and total amount, exceeding the standard and total amount, construction and operation of environmental protection facilities of enterprises, and emergency plans for environmental pollution accidents. The Measures for Self-monitoring and Information Disclosure of State Key Monitoring Enterprises (Trial) clearly stipulates the content, frequency, safeguard measures and information disclosure of enterprise self-monitoring. At present, more than 90% of state-controlled enterprises have published the self-monitoring information of four major pollutants, and more than 1/3 have published the monitoring data of various indicators.
In recent years, enterprises and institutions have made some achievements in environmental information disclosure, but there are also some difficulties and problems in implementation. First of all, the relevant legal system is not perfect. "Cleaner Production Promotion Law" only requires the "Shuangchao" enterprises to disclose pollutant discharge information compulsorily, and lacks corresponding legal means for other key pollutant discharge units that do not belong to "Shuangchao" or key pollutant discharge units that do not disclose pollutant discharge information truthfully. Secondly, the construction of social credit system in China is not perfect, and the construction of environmental credit system has just started. Some enterprises and institutions have problems such as inaccurate disclosure of environmental information, especially sewage data, untrue disclosure of environmental information, lack of effective supervision mechanism and so on.
The new "Environmental Protection Law" proposes to comprehensively strengthen information disclosure and public participation through special chapters, in which Articles 55 and 62 stipulate the relevant requirements and responsibilities of compulsory disclosure of environmental information by key pollutant discharge units. It is necessary to further clarify and refine the environmental information disclosure of enterprises and institutions when the Measures are promulgated.
The first is to implement the objective requirements of the new environmental protection law and other laws, regulations and policies.
The second is to ensure that the public enjoys the right to obtain environmental information according to law and the actual needs of participating in and supervising environmental protection.
Third, effective measures to encourage enterprises to consciously improve environmental performance.
Fourth, it is an important part of the construction of social credit system.