China imposed stiffer punishments on companies that violated environmental laws last year, according to new research that illustrates¹ Beijing’s growing resolve to push through aspects of a greener social agenda.

最新研究显示，去年中国对违反环境法的企业实施了更为严厉的处罚，这突显出中国政府日益增强的推动更环保社会议程的决心。

The research, conducted by financial index provider MSCI, recorded a near doubling in the cost of environmental penalties on selected companies in 2015 compared with the previous year and a near tripling in the likelihood that punitive² action would be taken against offenders³.

这项研究由金融指数提供商明晟(MSCI)进行。根据该研究，2015年期间，针对被选企业的环境处罚金额是前一年的近两倍，同时对违法企业采取处罚行动的可能性提高了近两倍。

The study covered 155 Chinese companies that are constituents⁴ of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

这项研究覆盖纳入明晟新兴市场指数(MSCI Emerging Markets Index)的155家中国企业。

The findings correspond with Beijing’s policy — evident in the Five-Year Plan covering the period from 2016 to 2020 — to combat an environmental crisis that has made China the world’s biggest carbon emitter, driven air quality in many cities to below minimum international health standards and aroused virulent⁵ public discontent.

研究结果符合中国政府应对环境危机的政策（明显体现在2016年至2020年的“五年规划”中），这场危机让中国成为全球最大碳排放国，致使很多城市的空气质量低于国际最低健康标准，并引发公众的严重不满。

Emily Chew, vice-president of MSCI (Hong Kong), said the research showed China’s regulators were taking a more aggressive stance against polluters as official determination to repair the country’s environment builds. “What I think is really interesting in the 13th five-year plan is that you really see this intention toward green development interwoven throughout,” Ms Chew said.

明晟（香港）副总裁赵汝贤(Emily Chew)表示，研究显示，随着中国政府加大整治环境的决心，中国监管机构正对污染企业采取更强硬的态度。她表示：“我认为，第13个五年规划的真正有意思之处在于，你确实看到这种绿色发展的意愿贯穿始终。”

Since a new Environmental Protection Law came into force in January last year, the proportion of cases involving the 155 companies leading to punishment has surged along with the total cost of the punishments, which rose to Rmb4.2m ($644,000) from Rmb2.2m in 2014.

自从去年1月新的《环境保护法》实施以来，上述155家企业受到环境处罚的比例飙升，罚金总额从2014年的220万元人民币升至420万元人民币（合64.4万美元）。

Ms Chew said the costs of the penalties remained too small to really “bite” corporate⁶ violators, but the trend was nevertheless indicative of Beijing’s desire to tighten⁷ supervision⁸ over environmental issues.

赵汝贤表示，处罚成本仍然过低，无法真正“咬疼”违法企业，但这种趋势仍表明，中国政府希望从严监督环境问题。

With the new law abolishing ceilings on environmental fines and NGOs empowered to initiate⁹ public interest lawsuits¹⁰, the MSCI report predicts that the size of penalties is likely to increase over time.

新的环保法取消了对违法企业的罚款上限，并授权非政府组织提起公益诉讼。有鉴于此，明晟报告预测，随着时间推移，处罚金额很可能逐渐增加。

On a nationwide basis, China punished 25,164 environmental offenders in the first half of last year, fining them more than Rmb230m and transferring 740 cases to the police for criminal investigations¹¹, the Ministry¹² of Environmental Protection has said. The ministry did not give comparative numbers for 2014.

中国环境保护部(Ministry of Environmental Protection)表示，从全国来看，去年上半年，中国对2.5164万家环境污染企业实施了处罚，罚金总额超过2.30亿元人民币，并将740起案件移交警方进行刑事调查。环保部没有提供2014年的可比数据。

However, green consciousness remains¹³ conspicuously¹⁴ lacking, even among the relatively¹⁵ sophisticated 155 Chinese companies with overseas listings that are included in MSCI’s EM index. For example, only 6 per cent of these companies publicly disclose their carbon emissions¹⁶, compared with 32 per cent of all MSCI EM constituents.

然而，环保意识仍明显欠缺，即使在相对成熟的在海外上市、被纳入明晟新兴市场指数的155家中国企业中也是如此。例如，在这些中国企业中，只有6%会公开披露碳排放数据，而在该指数全体成分股公司中，这个比例达到32%。

The Five-Year Plan, which was formally adopted in March this year after a lengthy¹⁷ consultative drafting process, identifies new energy vehicles as one of the 10 priority strategic industries that Beijing has earmarked for significant investments.

经过长时间征询意见过程后，新的5年规划在今年3月正式实施。它确定把新能源汽车列为中国政府将重点鼓励的10个优先发展的战略行业之一。

According to the official target, China aims to sell 5m pure electric and hybrid¹⁸ plug-in vehicles a year by 2020, up from 330,000 in 2015. This highly ambitious target looks unlikely to be met, even though new energy vehicle sales grew four times year-on-year in 2014 and 3.4 times year-on-year in 2015, Ms Chew said. If current trends continue, new energy vehicles may rise to around 1.75m in 2020, according to MSCI research.

根据官方目标，到2020年，中国计划每年销售500万辆纯电动和混合动力汽车，而2015年的销量为33万辆。赵汝贤表示，这一极其雄心勃勃的目标看上去不太可能实现，尽管2014年新能源汽车销量同比增长4倍，2015年同比增长3.4倍。根据明晟的研究，如果当前趋势继续，到2020年，新能源汽车销量可能增至175万辆左右。

Behind the ambitious projections¹⁹, Beijing is putting into force higher standards for new energy vehicles to qualify for 2016 subsidies²⁰ — such as requiring cars to be able to run for 100km on a single battery charge and a maximum speed of no less than 100km/h.

在雄心勃勃的预测背后，中国政府将对新能源汽车实行更高的2016年补贴资格标准，例如要求汽车单次充电后能够行驶100公里，且最高时速不得低于100公里。

Thus those companies at the technological²¹ cutting edge are set to benefit, potentially favouring Dongfeng Motor, which has 38 different types of new energy vehicles on the subsidy²² list, putting it in a good position to challenge the market leader, BYD.

因此，那些处于技术前沿的企业将受益，比如东风汽车(Dongfeng Motor)，该公司有38款不同型号的新能源汽车被列入补贴名单，这令其处于挑战市场领军企业比亚迪(BYD)的有利地位。