国内外稀土行业环境规制对比及启示

 梳理了中国、美国、澳大利亚等主要稀土生产国稀土环境规制的发展历程，从放射性污染物的安全管理、矿区土地复垦管理、大气污染排放管理和稀土环境税费制度4个方面，对各国环境规制的特点进行了对比和分析，研究发现：（1）从2012年开始针对中国稀土产业的环境法规体系逐渐形成，这些法规有效遏制了中国稀土环境污染蔓延和恶化的态势，但也对稀土供应产生了一定影响；（2）美国、澳大利亚等国稀土环境规制的起步较早，为稀土企业的生产设置了很高的环境“门槛”，迫使稀土企业及相关下游产业进行国际转移，也成为其恢复稀土生产的重要障碍；（3）为降低环境规制带来的高昂生产成本，美国、澳大利亚等国依托国际贸易在全球范围内建立了产能转移、管制规避和渠道转移3种环境污染转移渠道，驱使马来西亚等国承担了巨大的环境成本。因此，应立足国际视角，吸取西方国家在稀土环境管理上的经验和教训，推动建立本国稀土环境治理措施及全球稀土环境治理体系，以减少本国稀土行业环境污染并促成全球稀土产业链的合理布局。

Comparison of American,Australian, and Chinese environmental regulations in the rare earth industry and implications for global sustainable development

With increasing environmental pollution caused by the rare earth production, the environmental regulations are the key to the sustainable development and the international competitiveness of the rare earth industry in China. This paper reviews the development of the environmental regulations in China, the United States and Australia and compares some key aspects, including the safety management of the radioactive pollutants, the land reclamation, the air pollution management and the environmental taxes, and the main findings are as follows. (1) In China, the system of the environmental laws and regulations for the rare earth industry has been gradually established since 2012, containing effectively the spread of the environmental pollution, while somehow affecting the supply of the rare earths. (2) In the United States and Australia, regulations were established earlier, as high environmental barriers for the production of the rare earths. Accordingly, the producers of the rare earths and the related downstream industries shifted their business to other countries, which poses challenges for the United States and Australia to restore their production of the rare earths. (3) To reduce the high cost caused by the environmental regulations, based on the international trade, the United States and Australia have established three channels of transferring the environmental pollution, i.e., the production capacity transfer, the decree transfer and the production pattern transfer. As a result, countries such as Malaysia were driven to undertake severe environmental costs. Based on these international perspectives, we highlight the importance of the lessons learned in other countries such as the United States and Australia, and the improvement of the measures for regulating the rare earth industry in China and the global rare earth environmental governance system, in order to reduce the environmental pollution and to rationally optimize the global supply chain of the rare earths.