Progress in Environmental Protection in 2013

Ministry of Environmental Protection

(February 2014)

In 2013, the departments of environmental protection and affiliated organizations in China implemented the decisions and arrangements on environmental protection made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, conscientiously carried out the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress, endeavored to create highlights, focus on priorities, break through difficulties and cope with hotspots, and accomplished the key tasks of the year.

I. Formulating and Implementing Action Plan on Air Pollution Prevention and Control

Through in-depth implementation of the spirit of important instructions by General Secretary Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, under the direct leadership of the Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, the Action Plan on Air Pollution Prevention and Control (hereinafter referred to as “the Action Plan”) was formulated and released in collaboration with related departments. The Action Plan combines structural adjustment, scientific innovation and environmental protection to map out stable, well focused and stringent policy measures throughout the economic reproduction ranging from production, trade and distribution to consumption.

Firstly, decomposing the implementation responsibility. Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) played a supporting role in the efforts by the General Office of the State Council to formulate and distribute the division scheme of the work involving key departments, and joined hands with 5 departments including the National Development and Reform Commission to release Rules for the Implementation of the Action Plan on Air Pollution Prevention and Control in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Surrounding Areas. MEP signed liability agreements on air pollution prevention and control targets with 31 Provinces (Autonomous Regions and Municipalities), and released and carried out the implementation plan of the Action Plan with 12 tasks and 56 measures.

Secondly, detailing the corresponding policies. MEP proposed 22 to-be-released corresponding policies, among which, six policies have been released, including environmentally favored differentiated pricing for electricity, specialized funding, subsidizing new energy vehicles and pricing for upgraded oil quality, while the others are in the process of consultation and revision. 18 of the 25 planned pollution discharge standards have been released. All of the 9 technological policies for pollution prevention and control as well as 19 protection technical specifications have been released.

Thirdly, improving the systems of monitoring, early warning and emergency response. By the end of 2013, 161 cities at prefecture level or above have carried out environmental monitoring based on the revised ambient air quality standards with 884 nationally controlled monitoring points in total. The monitoring data of 6 indicators including PM2.5 together with the Air Quality Index (AQI) have been released in real time. The ambient air quality reports and rankings of the 74 cities as the first group to implement the revised ambient air quality standards have been released monthly. The Work Plan of Monitoring and Early Warning of Heavy Pollution Weather in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Surrounding Areas was promulgated in collaboration with the China Meteorological Administration. The Guidance on Strengthening the Emergency Management in Response to Heavy Pollution Weather and the Guidelines for the Compilation of Emergency Plan for Heavy Air Pollution in Urban Areas have been released and distributed.

Fourthly, reinforcing the compliance supervision and enforcement of atmospheric environmental laws and policies. Special enforcement inspection on air pollution prevention and control has been carried out in key areas since October 2013. Two rounds of supervision were carried out in 19 cities of 6 Provinces (Autonomous Regions and/or Municipalities) in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas. 403 enterprises were inspected and 199 of them were requested for rectification and improvement on the spot.

Fifthly, pushing forward regional coordination mechanism. The inter-ministerial coordination team for national air pollution prevention and control were set up, and a coordination mechanism for air pollution prevention and control in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas and that for the Yangtze River Delta Region was established.

Sixthly, enhancing various supporting measures. The central fiscal department has newly established special funds for air pollution prevention and control. The first batch of 5 billion yuan was approved to support the air pollution abatement in five Provinces (Autonomous Regions and/or Municipalities) including Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. 640million yuan was arranged to support the soot control for coal-fired boilers in 12 key cities. And “Clean Air Research Plan” has been launched and implemented.

While implementing the Action Plan on air, urgent efforts have been made to work out the Action Plan on Water Pollution Prevention and Control and the Action Plan on Soil Environmental Protection and Contaminated Sites Treatment.

 II. Comprehensively Achieving the Annual Emission Reduction Targets of Key Pollutants under the Total Amount Pollution Control Scheme

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval was suspended for three Provinces (Autonomous Regions), 3 enterprise groups and 6 cities, which failed the annual assessment for their emission reduction and/or failed to accomplish the key projects as listed in the liability agreement for emission reduction targets. And 43 enterprises were publicized for non-compliance and ordered to rectify within limited time. The incremental daily municipal wastewater treatment capacity had exceeded 14 million metric tons/d. The coal-fired power generation units of 190,000 megawatts had been equipped with de-NOx facilities. The desulfurization facilities of coal-fired power generation units of 5,000 megawatts had been retrofitted for expanded capacity. The smoke bypasses had been dismantled in existing power generation units of 150,000 megawatts. And the new dry process cement-based de-NOx facilities had been raised as high as 60%. The price difference between the electricity generated with de-NOx facilities and that without was further increased from 0.008 yuan per kilowatt-hour to 0.01 yuan per kilowatt-hour. And the electricity generated with de-dusting facilities was priced higher by 0.002 yuan per kilowatt-hour.

In 2013, national sulfur dioxide (SO2), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen emissions and/or discharge continued to decrease, while the NOx emission was reduced by more than 4% compared to that in 2012.

III. The Research, Demonstration and Awareness Raising for Ecological Civilization Achieved New Progress

In implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the Sixth Collective Study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the MEP broke down the whole effort into 16 tasks and assigned each to the Minister and/or Vice Ministers, and further, to the Departments within the MEP. Research and formulation of objective and indicator system were carried out for ecological civilization construction, and such system is being revised through consultation. The “Ecological Construction Demonstration Area” organized by MEP was officially renamed as “Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration Area” with the approval from CPC Central Committee. In total, 16 Provinces (Autonomous Regions) in China have been undertaking Ecological Province (and/or Autonomous Region) construction. More than 1000 cities (and/or counties) have been carrying out ecological city (county) construction. And 55 national Ecological Cities (Counties) had been built. China’s ecological civilization concept aroused international attention, and was officially recognized in form of a UNEP Governing Council Decision at the 27th Session held in February 2013.

IV. Further Giving Play to the Role of Environmental Protection in Optimizing Economic Development

EIA had been approved for 241 projects involving total investment of 1.9 trillion yuan. Among them, there were 106 livelihood-oriented, infrastructure and/or ecological environmental protection projects, accounting for 64% of total investment. EIA reports for 32 unqualified projects were sent back, disapproved or postponed for appraisal, involving total investment of 118.4 billion yuan. EIA approval reform was promoted. The EIA approval authority for 25 types of construction projects was granted to localdepartments. 135 national environmental protection standards were released. And special emission limitsfor air pollutant emission were developed and implemented for six major sectors, namelycoal-firedpower generation, iron and steel, petro-chemical, cement, nonferrous metals and chemical industries, as well as coal-fired boiler projects in key control areas.

V. Strengthening Enforcement Supervision to Solve the Prominent Environmental Problems Concerning People’s Livelihood

Environmental law enforcement was enhanced. MEP issued the Opinions on Enhancing the Enforcement Coordination between Environmental Protection and Public Security Departments jointly with the Ministry of Public Security; and continued to carry out special environmental protection campaign involving enforcement staff totaled 1.83 million person-time at national level. Inspection was undertaken with more than 710,000 enterprise-time. And nearly 6500 cases of noncompliance and/or environmental violation were investigated, among which, 1520 cases were publicized and supervised. Special inspection for ground water pollution in North China area was carried out. 25,900 enterprises involved in wastewater discharge were inspected, and over 550 illegal environmental actions of various kinds were investigated and punished. 192 emergent environmental incidents were handled. Drinking water source protection and ground water pollution prevention and control were strengthened. The 2012 assessment on annual environmental status was organized covering 844 centralized drinking water sources in 328 cities at prefecture level or above. Pollution prevention and control was further promoted in addressing heavy metal, solid wastes and chemicals. Over 300,000 metric tons of chromium slags were disposed of, which realized balance between the generation and the treatment of the chromium slags in the year.

VI. Continuously Promoting the Pollution Preventionand Control in Key River Basins and Rural Areas

Among the 577 state-controlled sections of seven major water systems, section with I-III class water quality accounted for 66.7%, and inferior V class accounted for 10.8% in 2013, which increased by 2.6% and decreased by 1.5% respectively compared to thosein 2012. “Fiscally Rewarding the Governance for the Better Environment” policy was deepened. Central fiscal department arranged special fund of 6 billion yuan to support the comprehensive treatment of rural environment. MEP had also actively implemented the Arrangement for Soil Environment Protection and Comprehensive Treatment Work in Recent Period released by the General Office of the State Council, distributed the Guide for the Compilation of Soil Environment Protection and Comprehensive Treatment Plan,and formulated target-orientedliability agreementand associated assessment methods.

In 2014, MEP will focus on the following work while comprehensively deepening the reform in areas of ecological conservation and environment protection:

Firstly, sparing no efforts to promote air, water and soil pollution control. In terms of air pollution prevention and control, in-depth implementation will be achieved regarding various policies in the Action Plan, with a special focus on the air pollution treatment in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas. The assessment on the results in 2013 will be organized. In addressing the prominent problems at regional level,full play will be given to the role of the inter-ministerial coordination team for air pollution prevention and control. The institutional development of coordination mechanisms will be deepened for both Regions of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas and the Yangtze River Delta. The cooperation in the Pearl River Delta region will be fostered. Furthermore, the pollution control in key industries will be promoted. The construction of air environmental monitoring and early warning system will be expedited. More stringent enforcement and supervision on environment performance will be carried out. Efforts in automobile emission control will be further enhanced. Local governments will be facilitated to establish emergency management system against heavy pollution weather and to implement management measures for emergency response.

In terms of water pollution prevention and control, the Action Plan on Water Pollution Prevention and Controlwill be released and implemented, focusing on protecting highly functional water bodies such as drinking water sources and ecologically sound lakes. Water quality will be further improved to eliminate the seriously polluted water system including inferior V class water system as monitored by the state-controlled sections.

As for soil pollution prevention and control, the Action Plan on Soil Environmental Protection and Contaminated Sites Treatment will be promulgated and implemented. the comprehensive national soil pollution survey and the first batch of key projects will be kicked off for soil environmental protection.The treatment and remediation of contaminated sites will be actively promoted. Furthermore, the policy of “Rewarding the Governance for Better Environment” in rural areas will be deepened to further expand the areas involved in the clustered rural environmental improvement.

Secondly, unremittingly promoting the emission reduction of the total amount of main pollutants. The emission reduction targets in 2014 is as follows: comparing to thosein 2013, the emission of sulfur dioxide, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen shall be reduced by 2% respectively and the emission of NOx shall be decreased by 5%.

Thirdly, adopting comprehensive measures to optimize economic development through environmental protection. Such projects as featured by “high energy consumption, high pollution and high resource intensity”, as well as low-level repeated construction projects and projects with excess production capacity, will be strictly controlled. We will also improve the system of emission standards, introduce the opinions on enhancing local environmental protection standards, guide the demonstration, dissemination and application of environmental protection technologies, and continue promoting compulsory clean production audit.

Fourthly, deepening the reform of ecological environment protection. It mainly includes the following elements: formulating ecological civilization construction indicator system, designating ecological protection red line, deepening EIA approval system reform, further reducing the regulatory policies in forms of administrative approval, and empowering the local governments to exercise such policies, establishing and improving a sound ecological compensation mechanism, and improving pollution emission licensing system, enterprises and public institutions’ total pollutant emission control system and environmental economic policies. Research will be carried out to promote the establishment and improvements of management system for environmental protection,which strictly supervises all kinds of pollutant emissions, and to conduct independent environmental supervision and administrative enforcement.

Fifthly, comprehensively carrying out the construction of ecological civilization demonstration. The improvement of management regulations and the construction indicator system for national ecological civilization construction demonstration areas will be carried out in an expeditious way, givinggreat impetus to ecological province construction.And the efforts in the construction of ecological municipalities directly under the central government, municipalities with independent planning status and provincial capital cities will be enhanced.

Sixthly, enhancing supporting measures. Active support will be made for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee to fully promote the revision of Environment Protection Law.The formulation and revision of the laws and regulations on air pollution control, soil environment protection, nuclear security and environment monitoring and management shall be accelerated. Pilots for compulsory liability insurance on environmental pollution will be further pushed forward. Sticking to the philosophy of giant leap in development through big projects, the input in environment improvement shall be further enhanced.The Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Environment Supervision Capacity Building shall be organized and implemented. The implementation shall be promoted for the Significant SpecialProgrammeof Technologies for Water Pollution Control and Treatment and the Clean Air Research Plan. The environment benchmark research shall be strengthened. And the pilots for rural environmental quality monitoring and evaluation shall be undertaken. Efforts shall also be made in environmental awareness raising and education, as well as international cooperation.