Since 2009, the Institute for Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have assessed the performance of China’s key cities in disclosing information on pollutants and pollution sources. Keeping in line with reports from previous years, this current assessment uses improved metrics that IPE and the NRDC have upgraded in accordance to international standards. Our report covers 120 of the country’s key cities.

This year’s PITI assessment criteria were developed under the pretext of the new Environmental Protection Law, which stipulates that citizens, corporations, and other organizations are legally entitled access to information about the environment, as well as the right to participate in supervising environmental protection efforts. Our evaluation reveals that there has been notable progress made in pollution-source information disclosure. However, there still remains room for improvement.