Original title: How to avoid “one size fits all” for cleaning and heating the stove in the ancient city of Shanhaiguan
Just after the winter solstice, a new round of cold wave has arrived. Warmth through the winter is undoubtedly an important livelihood issue for the northern people. However, the media recently revealed that the ancient city of Shanhaiguan, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, has seen a “one size fits all” phenomenon of clean heating, prohibiting burning wood and blocking stoves, causing some people to suffer from freezing. After the incident was exposed, the local area has initiated rectification. In response, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment also responded at a press conference on December 23, stating that specialized personnel have been organized to investigate and understand the situation, to urge local governments to carry out rectification quickly, and will continue to monitor the situation.
Frequently banned firewood sealed stoves
According to a report from the China Broadcasting Corporation on December 20, many people living in the ancient city of Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, reported that due to the state-controlled air monitoring points in the ancient city, the local government adopted a prohibition on burning wood and sealing in the process of promoting clean heating. Means such as blocking stoves have caused some elderly people and the people in difficulties to suffer from the cold.
The ancient city of Shanhaiguan is an old city with a history of more than six hundred years, and there is no natural gas and heating. Among the about 4,300 houses in the ancient city, about 1,700 households live here in winter, of which only 265 households have central heating, and there are more elderly people, more bungalows, and more families with difficulties. In order to promote clean heating, in 2019, the ancient city area will be completely banned from coal. This winter, the local area banned burning wood for heating, and the stoves in some people’s homes were blocked.
In fact, this is not the first time that “one size fits all” clean heating has occurred. On December 14, a notice on the handling of two elderly people in their 80s who illegally used hanging kangs to keep warm was spread online in the Salt Lake District of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, which caused concern. According to the report, the local people blocked and demolished the chimneys by hanging the kang, and fined the children 2,000 yuan respectively. Although the local response stated that no fine was imposed, it also led to the difficulties of the elderly in using clean heating equipment and the poor consideration of policy implementation.
On December 23, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Liu Youbin, stated at a press conference that clean heating in the northern region is a livelihood project. Insist on first standing and then breaking, not standing and not breaking.
Liu Youbin introduced at the press conference that in recent years, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has continued to organize investigations on the implementation of clean heating renovation and the protection of people’s warm winter protection, and made full use of the “12369” environmental protection reporting platform and other complaints and reporting channels to understand some local “coal reforms”. Problems that have arisen in the protection of heating from “gas” and “coal-to-electricity”. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will organize investigations and verifications as soon as possible, and urge relevant localities to resolve them, to ensure that the people will survive the winter warmly.
Peng Yingdeng, a researcher at the National Urban Environmental Pollution Control Technology Research Center, also said in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that “the research work is not solid, in-depth, and lack of service awareness. These are the main reasons for the “one size fits all” phenomenon often seen in the grassroots government’s clean heating operations. Good air quality must be achieved under the premise that people’s livelihood is guaranteed. To abandon people’s livelihood to talk about a beautiful environment is putting the cart before the horse.” He believes that to resolve the contradiction between atmospheric pollution control pressure and ensuring residential heating, we should first try our best to complete the relevant infrastructure for decentralized heating at the street and community level, and use the government’s overall coordination advantages to eliminate the pain and difficulty of residents’ decentralized heating.
Difficulty in central heating
The owner of a homestay in the ancient city of Shanhaiguan told a reporter from Beijing Commercial Daily that “I heard about the situation where residents were exposed to the cold due to blockage of stoves.” At the same time, he told reporters that since there is no heating in winter, the homestay is not open. “We used to burn boilers. Now we don’t allow coal to be burned. The boilers can’t be burned anymore. If you want to spend money on heating, you can’t get in, so it’s impossible to open a business.” He said that he had communicated with the local heating company and thought The introduction of central heating, but it could not be realized due to factors such as pipeline conditions.
According to the CCTV report, in response to the idea that people in the ancient city want to implement centralized heating, Liu Youyou, the mayor of Shanhaiguan District, said that after many professional and technical demonstrations, it is not realistic to implement centralized heating and natural gas in the ancient city. One is that everyone’s houses are relatively old; the other is that they are relatively crowded and the underground pipe network is intricate, making it impossible to lay the heat pipe network. He also introduced that the district government is planning to gradually implement air-energy heat pumps in the ancient city to ensure that the people in the ancient city stay warm during the winter.
“For this kind of ancient city with inconvenient central heating, in the process of implementing clean heating, relevant departments should first make arrangements in advance, adopt the principle and method of’winter sickness and summer treatment’, and accurately implement classified policies and steadily advance in stages during the non-heating season. Simply and rudely engage in’one size fits all’ and one step.” Peng Yingdeng said, “For the few residents who do not comply with the government’s clean heating requirements, we should first guide and propagate, and provide substantive assistance with the ideas and principles of establishing a long-term mechanism.”
Electric heating subsidies have to keep up
Since the replacement of clean energy, residents have suffered frequent freezes during the process of “changing coal to electricity” and “coal to gas” because of the “one size fits all” approach. In December 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 10 ministries and commissions jointly issued the “Clean Heating Plan for Northern Regions in Winter (2017-2021)”, which clearly stated that in some areas, clean heating is equivalent to “one size fits all” coal removal, and the overall effect is poor.
In 2018, the relevant person in charge of the National Energy Administration stated that clean heating is not a simple one-size-fits-all conversion of coal to electricity or coal to gas, but a comprehensive plan for coal, natural gas, electricity, renewable energy and other forms of energy. It is not only limited to unilateral innovation on the heat source side, but the entire heating system is comprehensively cleaned and efficiently upgraded. Therefore, cleaning and heating work must highlight the word “Yi”.
Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, said in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that for the ancient city, natural gas or other central heating may not be available, so electric heating can be used. However, electric heating is more expensive and requires appropriate subsidies from the government. In the medium and long term, central heating or natural gas heating is sustainable.
For residents, electric heating may mean a higher expenditure than in the past. Some residents reported that in the past, when coal was used for heating, only one or two thousand yuan was used for heating in a winter. After changing to electricity or gas, it would cost four to five thousand yuan a winter.
Peng Yingdeng said that in this regard, the government should have a people-oriented awareness, early study the provision of reasonable one-off heating subsidies, and formulate a package of supporting policies such as preferential low electricity prices to relieve residents’ worries.
After media exposure, Shanhaiguan has initiated rectification. Liu Youyou said that Shanhaiguan District has made a decision to implement a free policy for residents in the ancient city to register and purchase electricity, water, heating, and heating. The installer will receive a subsidy of about 1,500 yuan.
Liu Youyou also stated that the district has decided to improve the method of electricity subsidy, “from the payment of the subsidy in the later period to the subsidy and prepayment of a part of the fee at the same time. Encourage the use of electricity and deposit the money in the residents’ electricity account, and It’s not on his bank card.” Beijing Commercial Daily reporter Tao Feng Lu Yinling
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