China Environment News MEP, NDRC and Ministry of Finance jointly issued the 12th Five-Year Plan on Capacity Building for Environmental Supervision (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) . Focusing on total pollution reduction, environmental quality improvement, risk control and infrastructure improvement, the Plan aims to build up capacity in areas ranging from environmental monitoring, supervision, early warning, emergency response, environmental information, assessment, to environmental statistics, science & technology and publicity in a bid to elevate the level of environmental supervision.

The Plan identifies environmental supervision as the key component of environmental management, an important guarantee to meet environmental targets and a major part for promoting equalization of basic environmental services. Based on the requirements of total pollution reduction, environmental quality improvement, risk control and balanced development, it raises targets for environmental supervision capacity building in four areas, namely overall improvement of supervision on reduction of pollution sources and total pollution, remarkable progress in environmental quality monitoring and assessment, strengthening environmental early warning and emergency response system and improving infrastructure for overall environmental supervision and management.

According to the plan, the up-to-standard rate of equipment at environmental supervision institutions at county level across China will reach 85% by 2015, 90% at prefecture level and 95% at provincial level. Great progress will be made in supervision of vehicle pollution and pollution sources, scientific support and statistic capabilities. 90% of basic equipment for county-level environmental monitoring stations nationwide will reach the standard and standardization will be completed at monitoring stations at prefecture level. All provincial monitoring stations will meet the standard. Environmental monitoring capability at national level will be enhanced dramatically. Prevention of pollution accidents involving heavy metal, hazardous waste, hazardous chemicals and radioactive substances will be improved by a large margin. Environmental monitoring stations at prefecture level should have a strong capability of emergency monitoring and provincial monitoring stations should be able to conduct early-warning monitoring. At least 70% of environmental emergency management institutions at prefecture level should meet Grade II standard and all institutions at provincial level should be up to standard. National and provincial monitoring capacity for radiation environmental will meet the requirement of standardization, and be able to conduct relatively independent, complete safety analysis and assessment, check and calculation and experiment and validation. Supervision of nuclear and radiation safety should be developed in parallel with nuclear cause. The country will establish a group of office buildings for environmental supervision and management at prefecture and county level. The country will build office buildings for national environmental planning and engineering appraisal and environmental supervision center for North China, R & D base for national nuclear and radiation safety supervision and office buildings for six regional centers for nuclear and radiation safety supervision. Environmental information and publicity & education institutions above prefecture level will be equipped to the level of standardization.

The Plan set forth the following requirements. First, improving supervision on pollution sources and total pollution reduction. Equipment for on-site law enforcement will be enhanced and work will be done on capacity building for supervision law enforcement and check & acceptance. Effort will be made to improve automatic monitoring network on pollution sources and implement supervision on supervision center and key industries. The country will strengthen supervisory monitoring of pollution sources and data quality control, facilitate application of automatic monitoring data, start capacity building for environmental supervision on vehicle pollution and non-point pollution from agricultural sources and expand the supervision area of pollution sources. Environmental statistic capability will be reinforced to improve its support for key tasks such as total pollution reduction. The basis for environmental information should be cemented and application of the internet of things in pollution reduction will be promoted. Second, improving the ability of environmental quality monitoring and assessment. Effort will be made to fill the gap in environmental monitoring work and promote standardization. Monitoring of newly added indicators such as volatile organic substances and heavy metal will be improved. We will optimize national environmental monitoring network and use satellite remote-sensing and ground monitoring to conduct monitoring and assessment of ecological environmental quality. Environmental quality supervision and assessment system will be improved and put into enforcement. Third, strengthening capacity building on environmental early-warning and emergency response. We will enhance environmental risk management, supervision of nuclear and radiation safety and build up the capacity for relatively independent, complete safety analysis and assessment, check and calculation and experiment and validation. More effort will be made to prevent and control the risk of heavy metal, hazardous waste and hazardous chemicals and realize overall supervision on the disposal, transport and transfer of hazardous waste and hazardous chemicals. We will establish an environmental early-warning network, a network for environmental emergency response system and platform and strengthen the capability of environmental emergency response and the support of emergency response technologies. Fourth, consolidating the basis for comprehensive environmental supervision and management and promote the building of comprehensive environmental supervision and management system.

The Plan states that 40 billion yuan investment will be made to operate three major programs for infrastructure, guarantee and human resources in the four main areas. Basic programs include 10 areas such as capacity building on environmental monitoring, environmental supervision, environmental emergency response, environmental information, environmental assessment, publicity & education, standardization development and supervision of newly added pollutants. Guarantee programs range from supervision and operation guarantee for pollution sources and total pollution reduction and guarantee of environmental monitoring and assessment. Human resource program covers eight aspects such as environmental monitoring, supervision, emergency response, environmental information, assessment and publicity & education. We will strengthen the overall capability of environmental supervision and provide effective guarantee to realize the goal of the 12th Five-Year Plan for Environmental Protection and building of ecological civilization.

To ensure smooth enforcement, the Plan requires related departments to enhance organization and leadership for advancing the implementation of the Plan. Effort is needed to coordinate national and local environmental plans, special plans and the Plan, establish and improve project database and improve project reserve capability. Division of power and responsibility among the central government and local governments should be clarified and funds for capacity building on environmental supervision and business operation should be included in fiscal budget at all levels and ensured put in place. It is important to strengthen project supervision and implement performance assessment of projects in order to improve the efficiency of fund use. Attention will be paid to the cultivation of environmental supervision professionals and innovations on human resource institutions which will provide stronger guarantee for human resource development. Regular communication and assessment system on the implementation of the Plan should be established and improved and final assessment will be made on plan implementation as appropriate.