Environmental protection supervision increases, “two highs” projects become the focus of inspections-Xinhua English.news.cn

The implementation of “dual carbon” will be included in the “positive list” system of environmental protection inspectors to normalize

Increased environmental protection supervision, “two highs” projects become the focus of inspection

Recently, the documents of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on the enforcement and supervision of ecological environmental protection have been implemented one after another, which intensively released policy signals to increase the intensity of pollution control. At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment held on the 26th, Xu Bijiu, executive deputy director of the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspectorate Office, revealed that in the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will incorporate the implementation of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality into the Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspector. And blindly launch the “two highs” project, ecological protection and high-quality development as the focus of attention.

Environmental law enforcement continues to strengthen

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has continued to increase supervision in the ecological field. From April 6th to May 9th, the second round of the third batch of central ecological and environmental protection inspections was launched. 8 inspection teams were stationed in 8 provinces (regions) including Shanxi, Liaoning, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hunan, Guangxi, and Yunnan. Inspector. The reporter learned from the press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment that the current inspection team has completed inspection feedback on 8 provinces. As of the end of June, more than 29,000 reports from the public have been transferred, and about 27,900 have been completed or completed in stages.

Relevant data shows that in the first half of the year, 55,200 environmental administrative penalty decisions were issued nationwide, with a total fines of 4.332 billion yuan and an average fine of 78,400 yuan. The top five provinces in the number of administrative penalty cases are Hebei, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, and Guangdong; the top five provinces in the amount of fines are Jiangsu, Hebei, Shandong, Guangdong, and Yunnan.

The signal of strengthening pollution law enforcement at the policy level is also being further released. At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the “Guiding Opinions on Optimizing Ecological Environmental Protection Law Enforcement Methods and Improving Law Enforcement Effectiveness”. 1. Disclosure of the “Guiding Opinions on Supervisory Work”, clearly stated that the main tone of adherence to strictness, during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, must focus on the objectives and tasks of “increasing gas, reducing carbon, strengthening ecology, increasing water, consolidating soil, and preventing risks” , And unswervingly implement various tough tasks.

It is understood that the follow-up ecological environment law enforcement agencies will further adopt the “double random, one open” and positive list system, cooperate with the strengthening of off-site supervision methods, effectively implement differentiated supervision measures, and accurately allocate law enforcement resources to reduce interference with enterprises. At the same time, increase the rate of discovery of illegal issues. Through regional cross-inspection and special case investigation and handling systems, we will mobilize lean law enforcement resources to ensure the efficient completion of key tasks and key cases.

The “two highs” project is still the “highlight” of supervision

Judging from the signals released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the local ecological environment departments, the supervision of the “two highs” projects, river basin ecology and solid waste discharge is still the top priority.

Xu Bijiu said that in the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to carry out the second round of inspections and continue to deepen special inspections. Focus on the “three news” and promote high-quality development, and strictly control the blind launch of the “two highs” projects and the reduction of overcapacity to “look back” on the implementation. “If the’two highs’ projects are allowed to develop blindly, the consequences will be very serious. First, it will directly affect the achievement of carbon peaks and carbon neutral goals; second, it will directly affect the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure and energy structure adjustment; third, it will directly affect the environmental air quality. Improve.” Xu Bijiu emphasized.

The Department of Ecological Environment in many places said that it will further promote the investigation and clean-up of the “two highs” projects. Ningxia will accurately formulate rectification measures, shut down and eliminate a batch, rectify a batch within a time limit, upgrade a batch of technologies, upgrade a batch of energy conservation, and delay a batch of construction and investment, etc., to ensure that the problems of the “two highs” projects are fully rectified by the end of this year. In place. Henan requires that the environmental impact assessment of the industrial special planning for the “two highs” industries should fully consider the regional environmental carrying capacity, energy consumption, and carbon peak target constraints, implement regional environmental protection goals and the “three lines and one order” requirements, and strictly control and clarify ” The development scale of the “two highs” industry, the total amount of pollutant control, and the optimization of planning layout, industrial structure and implementation timing.

In addition to strengthening law enforcement, environmental supervision departments have also adopted the means of mobilizing the masses to report rewards to prevent omissions, and the upper limit of rewards has been greatly increased. For example, Zhejiang has given up to 500,000 yuan to report seven kinds of environmental violations that are bad in nature, hidden in behavior, and difficult to detect by daily supervision, including evading supervision and discharging pollutants, falsifying monitoring data, and illegal dumping of hazardous waste.

According to data from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 30 provincial and 313 prefecture-level eco-environmental departments have formulated and issued reward regulations for reporting. In 2020, a total of 13,870 award cases were implemented nationwide, an increase of 44% year-on-year; the total amount of awards was 7.19 million yuan, an increase of 100% year-on-year.

The positive list system is moving towards normalization

While strengthening law enforcement, in order to ensure scientific law enforcement, the implementation of “positive list” management of local enterprises has become an important starting point for local ecological supervision departments. According to statistics, as of the end of June, the goal of the positive list management system for normalized supervision and law enforcement of the provincial ecological environment departments has been basically completed, which also marks the institutionalization and normalization of ecological environment supervision and law enforcement.

“The positive list system, in layman’s terms, means that companies with light pollution, low risk, and strong law-abiding awareness should go less or not, and companies with heavy pollution, high risk, and weak law-abiding awareness should go, so as to concentrate limited law enforcement resources on subjective Enterprises that maliciously discharge pollutants and commit crimes can achieve better social benefits.” said Dong Zhanfeng, deputy director of the Institute of Management and Policy, Institute of Environmental Planning, Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Each region has its own focus on the positive list of corporate standards. The Hebei Provincial Department of Environment stated that environmental protection procedures are handled, environmental protection system accounts are complete, environmental management specifications, pollution prevention facilities are complete and can guarantee normal operation and compliance with discharge, no environmental violation records within 1 year, and installation facilities have “off-site” law enforcement supervision Qualified companies can be included in the positive list management. Shandong has made it clear that industry benchmarking enterprises with advanced pollution control and environmental protection management levels, environmental credit evaluations for more than 2 consecutive years as green standards, online monitoring and other off-site law enforcement conditions, and automatic monitoring data hourly average compliance rate of more than 99% in the previous year can be included. Positive list management.

There are also places where the ban on the positive list is clarified. For example, Ningxia stated that pollutant discharge units or projects involving centralized incineration of domestic waste, centralized treatment of rural domestic sewage, centralized treatment of industrial sewage in industrial agglomeration areas, and enterprises with prominent environmental problems such as high energy consumption and high discharge are located in the mainstream of the Yellow River and main tributaries. The pollutant-discharging units or projects within the key investigation scope, as well as environmental violations and other environmental rectification problems in the past two years, shall not be included in the positive list management.

In addition to reducing law enforcement inspections, companies included in the positive list may also receive “real money” dividends such as fiscal and taxation and financial support. For example, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment stated that for positive list companies, joint incentives in fiscal, taxation, finance, and credit ratings will be gradually implemented. Ecological and environmental departments at all levels will adopt 9 positive incentive measures such as reducing the frequency of on-site inspections and exempting air control.

Professor Wang Canfa of China University of Political Science and Law pointed out that the implementation of the positive list system has not only improved the effectiveness of law enforcement, but also reduced the burden on enterprises. Resources are concentrated on companies that are maliciously discharging pollutants and suspected of committing crimes, and intensifying supervision of companies with heavy pollution, high risks, and weak awareness of law-abiding. (Reporter Xiang Jiaying)