Measures for the Administration of the Legal Disclosure of Environmental Information by Enterprises

Measures for the Administration of the Legal Disclosure of Environmental Information by Enterprises 企业环境信息依法披露管理办法 Order of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (No. 24) The Measures for the Administration of the Legal Disclosure of Environmental Information by Enterprises, as deliberated and adopted at the fourth executive meeting of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2021 on November 26, 2021, are hereby issued and shall come into force on February 8, 2022. Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment December 11, 2021 Measures for the Administration of the Legal Disclosure of Environmental Information by Enterprises Chapter I General Provisions Article 1 For the purposes of regulating the legal disclosure of environmental information by enterprises and strengthening social supervision, these Measures are developed in accordance with the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, the Cleaner Production Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China, the Measures for Developing the Provisions on the Public Disclosure of Information by Public Enterprises and Institutions, the Plan for the Reform of the Rules for the Legal Disclosure of Environmental Information and other relevant laws, regulations and documents. Article 2 These Measures shall apply to the legal disclosure of environmental information by enterprises and the supervision and administration thereof. Article 3 The Ministry of Ecology and Environment shall be responsible for the organization, guidance, supervision, and administration of the legal disclosure of environmental information nationwide. The local ecology and environment departments at or above the districted city level shall be responsible for the organization and implementation as well as the supervision and administration of the legal disclosure of environmental information within their respective administrative regions. Article 4 Enterprises shall be the parties responsible for the legal disclosure of environmental information. Enterprises shall establish and improve the rules for the administration of legal disclosure of environmental information, standardize work procedures, clarify work responsibilities, establish accurate environmental information management ledgers, properly preserve relevant original records, and conduct statistics of and collect relevant environmental information in a scientific manner. The relevant data and expressions used by enterprises to disclose environmental information shall comply with the requirements of the standards and technical specifications in terms of environmental monitoring and environmental statistics, among others, and priority shall be given to the use of the pollutant monitoring data and data of pollutant discharge permit implementation reports, among others, that meet national monitoring standards. Article 5 Enterprises shall disclose environmental information in a lawful, timely, truthful, accurate and complete manner. The environmental information disclosed shall be concise, clear, and easy to understand, and shall not contain any false or misleading statements or material omissions. Article 6 The disclosure of the environmental information involving state secrets, strategic new and high technologies or core technologies in important fields, or trade secrets by enterprises shall be governed by the provisions of relevant laws and regulations; and if the disclosure of major environmental information is involved, it shall be reported for instructions in accordance with the relevant provisions issued by the state. No citizen, legal person or any other organization may illegally obtain the environmental information of enterprises nor illegally modify the environmental information disclosed. Chapter II Parties Disclosing Environmental Information Article 7 The following enterprises shall disclose environmental information in accordance with the provisions of these Measures: (1) Key pollutant discharging entities. (2) Enterprises subject to compulsory cleaner production examination. (3) Listed companies and the subsidiaries at all levels within the scope of consolidated statements (hereinafter referred to as “listed companies”) that comply with the provisions of Article 8 of these Measures. (4) Enterprises issuing enterprise bonds, corporate bonds, and debt financing instruments of non-financial enterprises (hereinafter referred to as “bond-issuing enterprises”) that comply with the provisions of Article 8 of these Measures. (5) Other enterprises that shall disclose environmental information as prescribed by laws and regulations. Article 8 The listed companies and bond-issuing enterprises that fall under any of the following circumstances in the previous year shall disclose environmental information in accordance with the provisions of these Measures: (1) They are held criminally liable for violations of ecological or environmental laws. (2) They are fined not less than 100,000 yuan in accordance with the law for violations of ecological or environmental laws. (3) They are punished on a daily basis in accordance with the law for violations of ecological or environmental laws. (4) Their production is restricted or suspended for rectifications in accordance with the law for their violations of ecological or environmental laws. (5) Their relevant ecological and environmental licenses and permits have been revoked in accordance with the law for their violations of ecological or environmental laws. (6) Their legal representatives, primary persons in charge, directly responsible persons in charge or other directly liable persons are sentenced to administrative detention in accordance with the law for their violations of ecological or environmental laws. Article 9 An ecology and environment department at the districted city level shall organize the development of the lists of enterprises that shall disclose environmental information in accordance with the law (hereinafter referred to as the “lists of enterprises”) within its administrative region. The ecology and environment department at the districted city level shall, before the end of March each year, determine the list of enterprises of this year and publish it. Before being published, the list of enterprises s......