Five Highlights to Interpret Environmental Protection in Government Work Report
In the government work report in 2018, the concern about energy and environmental protection was mentioned in a significantly important position. In energy-related fields, "ecology" is the key word with the highest frequency, with a total of 16 occurrences, followed by "energy" with a total of 7 occurrences, followed by "new energy vehicles" with three occurrences, "energy consumption" with two occurrences, "green development" with two occurrences, "environmental protection" with two occurrences, and "clean energy". These data are enough to show that the government attaches importance to energy and environmental protection.
In the government work report, we first reviewed the achievements made in the field of energy and environmental protection in the past five years. Among them, the energy consumption and water consumption per unit GDP decreased by more than 20%, the days of heavy pollution in key cities decreased by half, the discharge of major pollutants continued to decline, the forest area increased by 163 million mu, and the area of desertification land decreased by nearly 2,000 square kilometers annually. The "blue sky defense war" has achieved remarkable results. The number of blue sky days in Beijing is gradually increasing, and green development has achieved a good situation. The government work report also puts forward the target path and requirements for governance in the field of energy and environmental protection in 2018. On the whole, the 2018 government work report has the following five highlights in the field of energy and environmental protection:
Closely combine energy and environmental protection.
The main development goal in 2018 is in the field of eco-environment. In the government work report, the requirement of "energy consumption per unit of GDP will be reduced by more than 3%" is added, which reflects China’s determination to realize the commitments made at the Paris Summit. After Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement on behalf of the United States, China and France set off the banner of environmental protection. According to the calculation of relevant experts, if we can achieve this goal in 2018, China will achieve the goal of 40-45% reduction in 2020 compared with 2005 promised by the Paris Summit ahead of schedule.
This close combination of energy and environmental protection is also reflected in the adjustment of industrial structure and the development of new energy vehicles as an important means of environmental governance. According to the government work report, this year, the steel production capacity will be reduced by about 30 million tons, the coal production capacity will be withdrawn by about 150 million tons, and the coal-fired generating units below 300,000 kilowatts that fail to meet the standards will be eliminated.
In terms of new energy vehicles, the government work report proposes to expand the opening up of the field of new energy vehicles, extend the preferential purchase tax policy for new energy vehicles for another three years, and completely cancel the restrictions on the movement of used cars. At the end of 2017, German media said that by 2020, China will add 4.8 million electric vehicle charging piles. According to the estimation, every electric car on the street in China will have a charging pile to use. By 2020, there will be 5 million new energy vehicles (pure electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles) driving in China.
The goal is quantified clearly, and the actions and policies are improving day by day.
The government work report puts forward clear quantitative indicators for the ecological and environmental protection goals to be achieved in 2018.
In the field of air pollution prevention and control, the government work report proposes that the emissions of main pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides will drop by 3%, and the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in key areas will continue to decline. The main supporting policies are: promoting ultra-low emission transformation in steel and other industries; Improve pollution discharge standards and implement the deadline to meet the standards; Carry out special treatment of excessive emission of diesel trucks.
In the field of water pollution control, it is proposed in the government work report that chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions will drop by 2% in 2018; Implement comprehensive management of key river basins and sea areas to comprehensively rectify black and odorous water bodies; Strengthen the construction of sewage treatment facilities and improve the charging policy.
The importance of system construction in the field of energy and environmental protection is emphasized.
The government work report pointed out that it is necessary to improve the ecological civilization system, reform and improve the ecological environment management system, strengthen the control of natural ecological space use, implement the ecological environment damage compensation system, improve the ecological compensation mechanism, and protect the ecological environment with more effective systems. The reform and improvement of these systems will not only play a major role in promoting the work in the field of energy and environmental protection in 2018, but also have a major impact on the energy and environmental protection work in the next decade, even dozens.
Added a statement that "foreign garbage" is strictly prohibited from entering the country.
From January 1, 2018, China banned the import of "foreign garbage", including 24 kinds of solid wastes such as waste plastics, paper, waste slag and textiles. According to the Implementation Plan for Prohibiting Foreign Wastes from Entering China and Promoting the Reform of Solid Waste Import Management System, which was deliberated and adopted by the Leading Group for Comprehensive Deepening Reform in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on April 18th, 2017, not only solid wastes with great environmental hazards are completely banned, but also the import of solid wastes that can be replaced by domestic resources will be gradually stopped before the end of 2019.
This year’s government work report specifically proposed to ban "foreign garbage", which shows that the China government attaches great importance to this work. China imported "foreign garbage" originally to alleviate the shortage of industrial raw materials, but these foreign garbage have aggravated the air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution in China, and even endangered the health of relevant employees, which has become one of the important components of environmental pollution. Therefore, in order to further strengthen environmental pollution control, the China Municipal Government strictly prohibited the entry of "foreign garbage".
From March to December 2018, the national customs organized the "Blue Sky 2018" special campaign to crack down on the smuggling of "foreign garbage".
Once again, the ecological red line is clearly emphasized.
In the government work report, it is proposed to strengthen the protection and restoration of the ecosystem, comprehensively delineate the red line of ecological environmental protection, and put forward supporting policies and quantitative assessment indicators, including completing afforestation of more than 100 million mu, increasing the pilot area of cultivated land rotation to 30 million mu, expanding the scope of wetland protection and restoration, and deepening the pilot reform of the national park system.
Ecological red line refers to the area that needs special protection according to the protection requirements of ecosystem integrity and connectivity in order to maintain national ecological or regional ecological security. Industrialization and urbanization development are prohibited in the included areas.
The expression of the ecological red line in the 2017 government work report is to delimit and strictly observe the ecological red line. This year’s government work report is to delimit the ecological red line in an all-round way, which reflects the further increase in the work of the ecological red line.(Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, School of Environment, Renmin University of China, Deputy Director of Eco-finance Research Center. Blue rainbow)