IPE had spent years building up credibility with Chinas environmental authorities. Finally, its efforts to influence government policyfrom the recommendations on air quality monitoring that urged real-time disclosure, to the blue skies roadmap and petition that called for the release of pollution source informationappeared to come to full fruition. On July 30, 2013, the MEP announced it would require the countrys 15,000 key state-monitored enterprises to disclose emission levels of common pollutants in real time (hourly for gas emissions and every two hours for wastewater emissions) to their provincial EPB. The EPBs would disseminate the data digitally to the public. Each bureau would develop and perfect its own online platform for the purpose. The rules were to go into effect January 1, 2014, but many provinces started rollout in 2013.

The rules were closely aligned with the IPE petition. But even Ma was surprised by the scope of the initiative. Way beyond our expectations, the government actually said yes, he told a reporter. I am quite amazed. ^[36] Linda Green, an NRDC director in Washington, DC, referred to it as the biggest thing the Chinese government had done to date to tackle pollution.

The real-time data rules brought China much closer to the PRTR system Ma had envisioned. Instead of information only on violators, as was the case when he launched the China Pollution Maps in 2006, the public would now have access to information on all the largest polluters, even those operating within guidelines. The information would be much richer, as well, specifying chemicals and quantities and, most importantly, identifying who was releasing what.

It could become the basis for stricter monitoring of enterprises, and a gradual reduction in allowable emissions. Gu Beibei, a researcher who joined IPE from the chemical industry in 2012, notes that emissions limits varied greatly by province. In Beijing, they have implemented the most stringent emissions standard in this region, she says. Neighboring Hebei province had limits set 10 times higher. She continues:

Even if heavy industry, for example, a power plant, discharges within the standard, it could release 10 times more pollutants in Hebei than the same size plant in Beijing. So, the first step is to really standardize emission limits. ^[37]

Gu Beibei on emissions standards

The new real-time source data would help by allowing people to see, first of all, whether SOEs were operating within established parameters and, secondly, whether the parameters were restrictive enough to protect people and natural resources.

By reporting data in real time, moreover, it would be much harder for companiesor local officialsto hide illegal emissions. Enterprises could not dump at night or between inspections without such maneuvers being recorded. Other common ruses, such as temporarily placing the monitor probe into a secondary effluent pipe or diluting emissions with water when an inspector was due, could be detected by examining trends in the data flows. EBPs could manage their resources more effectively, assigning inspectors to the likeliest violators.

NGOs and citizens could get involved, too, if they noticed excessively high (or suspiciously low) reported emissions. They could alert local authorities, or even go to an errant factory to protest, or to collect photographic evidence of covert dumping. City and provincial regulators would be better able to ensure that, if required, factories suspended production during periods of extreme pollution. If pollution limits were lowered in the future, authorities could verify that factories were ramping down accordingly. Once implemented, the real-time data rules would offer limitless possibilities for bolstering enforcement and pressuring polluters.

Ultimately, Ma saw global implications for collecting and publishing corporate-level pollution data. In this era of globalization, he says, we need to have environmental protection also globalized. He continues:

The best way, and probably the only way, is to use information technology as a tool. So, I do hope that eventually other countries in the world, especially the developing countries, could build up their own pollution maps. And eventually we piece them together, and come up with a global pollution map, so that we track the performance of corporations wherever they move in the world.

Ma Jun on globalization and pollution