Road traffic accident damage compensation calculation standards

Author: Ji Chunlei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: Environmental pollution refers to the phenomenon of interference and damage to ecosystems caused by harmful substances entering the environment, commonly known as pollution. Specifically, it involves harmful substances or factors entering the environment, spreading, migrating, transforming, and interacting with various elements of the ecosystem, leading to changes in its structure and function, and adversely affecting the survival and development of humans and other organisms. Currently, environmental pollution issues of varying degrees have emerged globally, with globally significant aspects including atmospheric pollution, marine pollution, and urban environmental problems. With the globalization of economy and trade, environmental pollution has increasingly shown an international trend, and the recent issue of transboundary movement of hazardous waste is a prominent manifestation of this. Overall, environmental pollution can be the result of human activities, natural activities, or a combination of both. For example, volcanic eruptions that release large amounts of dust and harmful gases like sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere also cause atmospheric pollution. However, environmental pollution is more commonly caused by human activities, particularly socio-economic activities. The pollution we usually refer to stems from such human activities. The reason human activities cause environmental pollution lies in a fundamental difference between humans and other organisms: humans not only engage in their own production but also carry out large-scale material production, which other organisms do not. Due to this, the intensity of human activities far exceeds that of other organisms. For instance, in the use of water within ecosystems, other organisms only take the amount required for their survival, while humans use water to an extent far greater than other organisms, to the point where the water in some local ecosystems is insufficient. Environmental pollution has attracted the attention of countries worldwide. China has also demonstrated its commitment to environmental protection through legislation. Data shows that in recent years, China has accelerated the development of laws and regulations for environmental and resource protection, formulating and improving eight environmental protection laws, twelve laws for natural resource management and ecological protection, three disaster prevention and mitigation laws, and one law on clean production, gradually establishing a relatively comprehensive legal system for sustainable development. Meanwhile, the State Council has formulated over 100 administrative regulations and rules on environmental, resource, and disaster-related matters, providing a series of practical institutional frameworks for the implementation of laws. China has ratified and signed 48 multilateral international environmental treaties. Local people's congresses and governments have formulated over 1,500 local environmental regulations and administrative rules. After more than 20 years of development, China's laws and regulations on environmental and resource protection have evolved from nothing to something, from partial to comprehensive, gradually establishing a relatively complete legal system for sustainable development, comprising laws on pollution control, ecological protection, resource management, disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as supporting administrative regulations, government rules, and local regulations. However, overall, the situation regarding environmental and resource protection remains quite severe. In recent years, while China has achieved significant progress in environmental and resource protection alongside comprehensive economic and social development and rising living standards, it has become clear that the trends of environmental pollution, ecological deterioration, resource waste, and destruction have not yet been fundamentally reversed. In the current and coming years, the situation regarding environmental and resource protection will remain quite severe: although the trend of worsening pollution has been generally controlled, pollution in some local areas remains extremely severe, with pollutant emissions far exceeding the environment's self-purification capacity, particularly in terms of water and air pollution. The trend of ecological deterioration has not yet been reversed, with the extent of deterioration intensifying in some areas and its scope expanding, especially in terms of desertification, soil erosion, and grassland degradation. The contradiction between resource supply and demand is becoming increasingly prominent. With economic development and population growth, the per capita availability of resources is decreasing year by year, further exacerbating the contradiction between resource supply and demand. The shortage of strategic resources such as water and oil, in particular, will affect national economic development and social stability. At the same time, we face new challenges: the continuous growth of population and rising consumption demands will increase environmental pressure; the continuous expansion of traditional industries and the "gradient promotion" of polluting industries will accelerate the trend of ecological deterioration; the expansion of urban scale and quantity, coupled with lagging infrastructure development, will threaten urban environmental quality; outdated agricultural production methods and rural environmental issues will become increasingly prominent; the difficulty of ecological governance will increase, and the task of improving the ecological environment will become more challenging; and global environmental issues will become more prominent, along with transboundary pollution problems. In addition to causing direct damage and impacts to ecosystems, the accumulation and migration-transformation of pollutants can lead to various derivative environmental effects, posing indirect harm to ecosystems and human society. Sometimes, this indirect harm can be even greater and harder to eliminate than the direct harm caused at the time. For example, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and ozone layer depletion are environmental effects derived from atmospheric pollution. These derivative environmental effects of pollution are often, meaning they may not be easily noticed or anticipated at the time of pollution but indicate that environmental pollution has already reached a severe stage once they occur. Of course, the most direct and easily perceivable consequence of environmental pollution is the decline in the quality of the human environment, affecting people's quality of life, health, and productivity. For example, urban air pollution leads to murky air and increased incidence of diseases; water pollution degrades water quality, with declining drinking water quality threatening human health and causing premature birth or deformities in fetuses, etc. Environmental pollution can be classified from different perspectives. Based on the type of polluted environmental system or its dominant elements, it can be categorized as atmospheric pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, marine pollution, etc.; according to the social domain where the pollution source is located, it can be classified as industrial pollution, agricultural pollution, traffic pollution, etc.; and based on the form or nature of the pollutants, it can be classified as air pollution, wastewater pollution, solid waste pollution, noise pollution, radiation pollution, hazardous material pollution, etc. Severe pollution incidents not only cause health problems but also social problems. With the intensification of pollution and the growing public awareness of environmental issues, disputes and conflicts arising from pollution have been increasing year by year, and compensation disputes caused by environmental pollution are also on the rise. However, due to the lack of separate legislation on environmental damage compensation in China, many environmental damage cases fail to receive fair resolution and compensation. Current laws and regulations in China only provide scattered provisions on environmental damage compensation, leaving a "supply gap" in addressing numerous environmental disputes. Allowing the public to resolve environmental disputes through legal means is the best way for public participation in environmental protection. At the same time, legislation on environmental damage compensation will compel polluting enterprises to voluntarily address pollution, reducing resistance to law enforcement by environmental protection authorities. Therefore, legislation on environmental damage compensation is imperative. In the past two decades, the number and severity of environmental disputes in China have reached unprecedented levels, with disputes over indoor environmental pollution caused by interior decoration being particularly common. However, from the perspective of China's environmental judicial practice, the laws and regulations for handling environmental disputes have not been strengthened accordingly. This is manifested in the lack of comprehensive legislation on environmental dispute resolution, including clear and specific provisions on procedures, evidence rules, and measures to halt pollution. As a result, the interests of victims in numerous environmental infringement lawsuits are often unable to be effectively protected. To ensure that the interests of more environmental pollution victims are effectively protected, establishing a specialized environmental litigation mechanism, formulating dedicated procedural laws, and improving specialized evidence rules are particularly worthy of attention. Based on the provisions of the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and related environmental protection regulations, this book summarizes the calculation standards for environmental damage compensation from the aspects of personal injury, property damage, and mental damage. It should be noted that the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China, the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, and other laws and regulations have not explicitly stipulated some items and standards for environmental damage compensation. The standards and calculation methods described in this book are determined based on these laws, with reference to relevant provisions on personal injury compensation, property damage compensation, and mental damage compensation.