中国环评制度的发展历程及展望

环评制度作为中国知名度最高的环境管理手段之一,在环保工作中发挥了重要作用,但近年来也暴露出众多问题,广为社会关注。特别是十八大以来,关于环评改革的呼声日益高涨。本文系统回顾了环境影响评价制度在中国的发展历程,以环评重大事件为分水岭,首次将环评发展历程划分为成长期、发展期、壮大期和问题高发期。以此为基础,总结了当前环评制度的主要问题,并剖析了其深层次原因,包括制度设计失当、体系运行失效、公众意识觉醒等,最后针对这些问题为环评制度的优化与发展提出了建议。

The History and Prospect of Environmental Impact Assessment in China

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the most important and often-obligatory process used to predict the environmental consequences of proposing or launching a plan, policy, program or project, which plays a key role in the environmental protection of China. But in recent years, EIA has exposed so many problems and regarded wide concern from the society. Since the 18th CPC national congress, the calls for EIA reform are growing louder.Thispaperlooked back the history of EIA in China, and analyzed the current lacks of EIA and the reasons, including the failure of EIA system design and operating mechanism, increasing environmental awareness. EIA should make a new design for the target and operation of the system, including simply the procedure of approval, further the research of environmental impress, stringent enforcement mechanisms. All of these may help EIA become more and more useful to provide sufficient information to allow the decision makers to decide whether or not to proceed with a project.