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It’s official.  The Standing Committee of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) passed the Circular Economy Law on Friday.  President Hu Jintao signed it into law.  It will come into force on January 1, 2009.  The law may be found here (Chinese only).

According to a Xinhua report, the law requires

• the government to closely monitor energy consumption and pollution emissions in heavy consuming and polluting industries including the steel and non-ferrous metal production, power generation, oil refining, construction, and printing industries;
• government departments to promote recycling and improve energy-saving and waste-reutilization standards and develop policies to divert capital into environment friendly industries;
• industrial enterprises to introduce water-saving technologies, strengthen management, and install water-saving equipment in new buildings and projects;
• crude oil refining, power generation, steel and iron production plants to stop using oil-fired fuel generators and boilers, in favor of clean energy, such as natural gas and alternative fuels;
• enterprises and government departments to adopt renewable products in new buildings, such as solar and geothermal energies;
• enterprises to recycle and make comprehensive use of coal mine waste, coal ash, and other waste materials; and
• encourages farmers and rural administrators to recycle straw, livestock waste, and farming by-products to produce methane.

The central government will allocate funds and capital to enterprises to encourage innovation in recycling technologies, and provide tax breaks to enterprises introducing and using energy-efficient technologies and equipment.  All of these items were in the draft released last summer.  As soon as I have had a chance to digest the new law, I’ll provide further comments.

It is hoped that

“Developing a recycling economy will help the country to achieve a maximal economic efficiency through a minimal energy consumption and emissions,� said Ni Yuefeng, NPC Standing Committee member.