INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN POLICY AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS FOR BROWNFIELD SITE MANAGEMENT - 2010 WorlBank Report

This report presents an overview of policy and regulations on contaminated site management in four different regions: North America (the United States, Canada), Asia (Japan and Taiwan, China), Europe (European Union, United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands) and Latin America (Brazil and Mexico).

It defines 4 key conclusions:
Clear identification of stakeholders and allocation of responsibilities: China needs to balance between the “polluter pays principle” and implementation efficiency, to avoid lengthy and costly litigation procedures which do not contribute to effective contaminated site management;

Safeguard policies to contain risks related to existing brownfields: In many cases, rather than roceeding straight to remediation of a site, safeguards should be put in place to contain a site and minimize any immediate dangers to the public and damage to the environment;

Adoption of risk-based clean-up targets: International experience shows that full remediation is often excessively costly, and that the optimal level of clean-up targets depends on the risks the site poses to its environment and the surrounding population, which in turn largely depend on the proximity of the brownfield to population centers and its intended use;

Financing mechanism: Drawing on the experience of the USA and other countries, China needs to establish sustainable funding mechanisms for contaminated site clean-up activities, in order to accelerate remediation activities on the most urgent sites.