Full Transcript | The Ministry of Ecology and Environment held a regular press conference in April
Pei Xiaofei, Director General of the Department of Publicity and Education of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Spokesperson
Pei Xiaofei:Friends from the media, good morning, and welcome to the regular press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in April. The theme of today's press conference is "Deeply Study and Practice the Experience of 'Xiamen Practice' and Comprehensively Promote the Comprehensive Management of Key Sea Areas and the Construction of Beautiful Bays". We have invited Mr. Zhang Zhifeng, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Marine Ecology and Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Mr. Liu Dejun, Spokesperson of the China Coast Guard, to introduce the protection of the marine ecological environment and law enforcement and supervision, and to answer your questions with me.
Next, I would like to report on three key tasks of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in the near future.
1. The quality of the ecological environment in the first quarter of 2024
2. The "2021 Electricity Carbon Dioxide Emission Factor" was released
3. The International Day for Biological Diversity will be held on May 22
May 22 is the International Day for Biological Diversity. The theme of this year's International Day for Biological Diversity is "Be part of the Plan". In order to call on all sectors of society to actively participate in biodiversity conservation, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the People's Government of Hainan Province will jointly hold the International Day for Biodiversity on the International Day for Biological Diversity.
At that time, the members of the State Council's Coordination Mechanism for Strengthening Biodiversity Conservation, some Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and representatives of international organizations such as the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity will participate in the relevant activities.
The Chinese government has always attached great importance to biodiversity conservation. At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued and submitted to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity the Strategy and Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation in China (2023-2030), continuing to promote the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and advancing the process of global biodiversity governance. In addition, since China took the lead in funding the establishment of the Kunming Biodiversity Fund in 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations Environment Programme and other international institutions, have carried out several rounds of consultations, basically reached an agreement on the cooperation of the Kunming Biodiversity Fund, and strive to achieve the implementation of the first batch of projects supported by the Kunming Biodiversity Fund before COP16 (the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity).
Pei Xiaofei:Next, I would like to invite Deputy Director Zhang Zhifeng to introduce the relevant situation of marine ecological and environmental protection.
Zhang Zhifeng, Deputy Director of the Department of Marine Ecology and Environment
Since the beginning of the new year, "Xiamen practice" has become a hot word spread by many media in the central government, and it can be said that the whole network is swiping the screen and the strength is out of the circle. Xiamen City is located on the sea and in the city, and is an important breeding ground and pioneer practice place of Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought. In 1988, when General Secretary Xi Jinping was working in Xiamen, he pioneered the two-cross policy of "governing the lake according to law, intercepting and treating pollution, dredging and building banks, invigorating water bodies, and beautifying the environment", which opened the curtain on Xiamen's continuous and in-depth promotion of ecological civilization construction and efforts to build a bay-type ecological city. Over the past 36 years, Xiamen has deeply practiced and continuously enriched and expanded the successful experience of comprehensive management of Yundang Lake, forming a number of landmark achievements with Xiamen's recognition, national influence and world reputation, and also providing Xiamen empirical evidence for the historical, turning point and overall changes in China's ecological civilization construction, and profoundly demonstrating the truth and practice of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.
We have realized that one of the core contents of the "Xiamen Practice" is to systematically govern the sea and protect the sea and promote the harmony between people and the sea. Since last year, we have thoroughly implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, deeply studied and practiced the experience and concept of "Xiamen Practice", and coordinated the promotion of marine ecological and environmental protection in accordance with the deployment requirements of the CPC Central Committee on "fighting several beautiful landmark battles with higher standards", and achieved good results in a phased manner.
First, land and sea co-governance "cleaner water". We adhere to the combination of key tackling and coordinated governance, and regard the treatment of total nitrogen in rivers entering the sea and the investigation and remediation of sewage outlets into the sea as the top priority in the comprehensive treatment of key sea areas, and strive to promote the improvement of water quality in the adjacent waters of the Bohai Sea, the Yangtze River Estuary-Hangzhou Bay and the Pearl River Estuary. At the same time, with the bay as the basic unit, other coastal cities across the country will work together to promote the prevention and control of pollution by land and sea. In 2023, the average concentration of total nitrogen in the inflow sections of state-controlled rivers across the country will decrease by 12.2% year-on-year, and the proportion of excellent water quality in coastal waters will reach 85.0%, a year-on-year increase of 3.1 percentage points, achieving the "sixth consecutive increase" since 2018.
The second is to improve the quality and expand the area of "the bay is more beautiful". We adhere to the combination of demonstration and echelon promotion, and select the second batch of 12 excellent cases of beautiful bays in the southeast sea area of Xiamen, and summarize and promote typical local experience and practices. The "Action Plan for the Construction and Improvement of Beautiful Bays" was issued and implemented, and all localities were organized to further expand the scope of construction, and more than 100 bays were promoted to build beautiful bays with "one bay and one policy", highlighting quality and efficiency improvement and normal supervision. In 2023, water quality in 126 of the country's 283 bays improved compared with the average of the previous three years, and 24 typical marine ecosystems remained in an "unhealthy" state for three consecutive years.
The third is to take multiple measures to "make the beach cleaner". We adhere to the combination of normal governance and model innovation, and on the basis of organizing and carrying out 11 special clean-up actions in key bays in the early stage, we will work with relevant departments to jointly implement the clean-up action of marine garbage in coastal cities, guide local governments to take multiple measures to clean up beaches and clean up water, and establish and improve the normalized work system and institutional mechanism. Taizhou, Zhejiang Province has created a new model of "blue recycling" governance to realize the full visual traceability of marine plastic waste recycling and the synergy of carbon reduction and pollution reduction, and won the United Nations "Champions of the Earth" award.
Fourth, it is necessary to protect the sea in accordance with the law and "recruit more realistically". We have adhered to the combination of institutional innovation and strict supervision, and the newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law has been officially promulgated and implemented, which has further strengthened the overall planning, regional linkage and comprehensive management of land and sea, and clarified a series of innovative systems and pragmatic measures in marine pollution prevention and control, ecological protection and restoration, supervision and management and law enforcement. Up to now, more than 53,000 sewage outlets have been investigated and more than 16,000 have been remediated in coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country.
Fifth, building a foundation can be "more vigorous". We have insisted on the combination of finding out the bottom line and improving our capabilities, organized and carried out the third baseline survey of marine pollution, and have completed the field investigation tasks of all the sea areas under our jurisdiction, and 11 coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) are carrying out more refined surveys of the ecological environment of the bay. We continued to build marine environmental emergency response capabilities, deepened emergency response cooperation with CNOOC and other companies, completed the inauguration of five marine environmental emergency response bases in Tianjin and Shanghai, and organized and carried out investigation and rectification of oil spill risks and emergency drills for offshore oil and gas exploration and development.
See a city with a lake, and seek a road with a city. The "Xiamen Practice" profoundly enlightens us that the practice path of ecological civilization to promote high-quality development and high-level protection is feasible and achievable, and the construction of a beautiful China where man and nature coexist in harmony can be felt and known. We will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, implement the spirit of the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection and the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee, apply and promote good experience and good practices such as "Xiamen Practice", and further promote the protection of the marine ecological environment with higher standing and more practical measures, so that the beautiful bay of "clean water, clean beaches, fish and gulls, and harmony between people and the sea" will be built more and more beautiful, and the people's sense of gain and happiness near the sea will become stronger and stronger.
As the May Day holiday is approaching, we also welcome everyone to take the beautiful bays along the coast as a destination for a vacation with family and friends!
That's all I have to say, thank you!
Liu Dejun:Dear journalists, good morning, it is a pleasure to meet you, and thank you very much for your long-term concern and support for the law enforcement work of the coast guard, and then I will give a brief introduction to the law enforcement work of marine ecological and environmental protection in 2023.
2023 is the first year for the full implementation of the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and a key year for promoting the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan. We adhere to both the symptoms and the root causes, and take comprehensive measures to comprehensively improve the quality and efficiency of law enforcement for the protection of the marine ecological environment, and serve to ensure the construction of a beautiful bay.
In 2023, we will face up to the complex situation facing the protection of the marine ecological environment and fight the battle to defend the blue sea in an all-round way. On the basis of strengthening normal law enforcement inspections, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration will deploy and carry out the "Blue Sea 2023" special law enforcement action, implement the "Green Shield" nature reserve to strengthen supervision, increase the rectification of outstanding problems of marine pollution and ecological damage, concentrate superior resources, make every effort to crack down on illegal and criminal activities, and strictly enforce and supervise services. Throughout the year, more than 3,600 marine engineering construction projects were inspected, more than 690 dumping areas and dumping projects were inspected, more than 1,300 marine nature reserves were inspected, 95 cases of illegal dumping were investigated, and 33 cases of suspected sabotage of public communication facilities were investigated.
Keeping a close eye on major and difficult issues such as illegal mining of sea sand, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly deployed and carried out special actions to crack down on illegal and criminal activities related to sea sand, strengthened analysis and judgment of the situation, deployed scientific forces, strengthened joint logistics linkage, inspected more than 3,800 places such as sand yards, wharves, construction sites, etc., inspected 16,800 ships of various types, seized 98 cases involving sea sand, seized 95 ships involved in the case, and seized 452,000 tons of sea sand, a significant year-on-year decline, and the frequent occurrence of illegal illegal sea sand mining in key sea areas has been curbed.
In 2023, we will firmly establish the idea of "a game of chess" for the protection of the marine ecological environment, and comprehensively fight the battle of synergy and the whole. Focusing on the requirements of "modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity", deepen and consolidate the foundation of cooperation, strengthen the overall coordination of land and sea, optimize the marine governance model, and jointly convene a maritime law enforcement work conference with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Transport and the General Administration of Customs, to analyze the situation of law enforcement work and study opinions on comprehensive governance. In response to difficult issues related to the sea, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued the "Minutes of the Symposium on Cracking Down on Sea-related Sand-related Crimes in Accordance with the Law" and the "Guidelines for Handling Evidence in Maritime Sand-related Criminal Cases", and jointly issued the "Typical Cases of Handling Crimes Related to Illegal Sand Mining at Sea" in conjunction with the Supreme People's Procuratorate, unifying the specifications of evidence and the application of law in sand-related cases, and continuously unifying the basis of law enforcement standards.
Relying on the law enforcement coordination and cooperation mechanism, coast guard agencies at all levels closely coordinate with local sea-related departments, regularly carry out consultations and studies with ecological and environmental departments, understand and grasp the situation of marine ecological and environmental protection, and cooperate with customs, fishery administration, maritime affairs and other departments to carry out joint patrol inspections at key times and in key sea areas, and promptly investigate and eliminate potential safety hazards. Combined with the National Oceanic Day, the fourth anniversary of the opening of 95110 and other publicity activities, and the relevant departments to organize law enforcement officers to go deep into fishing ports, wharves, enterprises and institutions to carry out "law-sending" activities, widely publicize the knowledge of marine ecological environmental protection and related policies and regulations, and improve the people's awareness of ecological environmental protection.
In 2023, we will pay close attention to the shortcomings and weaknesses of law enforcement in marine ecological and environmental protection, and comprehensively fight the battle of capacity improvement. Closely focusing on the characteristics and laws of law enforcement of marine ecological and environmental protection, we will continue to innovate the maritime supervision model, and make overall use of people, ships, aircraft and other forces to build a three-dimensional supervision model of land and shore inspections, sea patrols, and air inspections. Promote the use of information systems such as marine dumping and submarine cable protection, deepen the "Internet +" law enforcement model, carry out satellite remote sensing law enforcement on a pilot basis, strengthen remote sensing monitoring of key areas and key targets such as marine nature reserves, coastlines, and islands, actively integrate into local smart coastal defense construction, introduce information systems such as fishing vessel management and safety rescue, and improve the level of science and technology management and sea governance.
2024 is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and an important year for comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China. Forge ahead, comprehensively strengthen the law enforcement of marine ecological environmental protection, promote the continuous and stable improvement of marine ecological environmental protection, and contribute to the high-quality development of the marine economy.
That's all I have to say, thank you.
Answering questions from reporters
Over the years, the successive municipal party committees and municipal governments of Xiamen have always followed General Secretary Xi Jinping's strategic plan and earnest entrustment, taking the "comprehensive management of Yundang Lake" as the starting point, the "bay-type ecological city" as the starting point, and the "high-quality, high-value, modern, and international" as the goal, deeply practicing Xi Jinping's thought on ecological civilization, promoting high-level protection and high-quality development, and exploring a Chinese-style modern development path in which man and nature coexist in harmony. The main empirical practices can be summarized as adhering to the "five governances":
The first is to persist in governing according to law. Xiamen has thoroughly practiced the concept of "governing the lake according to law" put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping, continued to strengthen the establishment of rules and regulations in the field of ecological civilization, successively formulated and issued more than 30 relevant laws and regulations such as the "Regulations on the Construction of Ecological Civilization in Xiamen Special Economic Zone", established the country's first comprehensive marine law enforcement team with administrative establishment, and jointly established the "Xiamen Ecological Justice Collaborative Protection Platform" by multiple departments, providing a strong legal guarantee for the continuous and in-depth promotion of the construction of ecological civilization.
The second is to adhere to scientific governance. Xiamen has always adhered to the concept of scientific decision-making and scientific governance for the comprehensive management of Yundang Lake, and has taken the lead in setting up a marine expert group in the country to provide decision-making support for the city's ecological civilization construction, organizing and carrying out land and sea ecosystem surveys, environmental governance and ecological protection key technology research, etc., and supporting and leading the ecological and environmental protection of land and sea with scientific and technological empowerment. Xiamen has always followed the laws of nature, insisted on combing mountains and rivers first, and then rebuilding the land and city, and took the lead in launching the "multi-plan integration" reform in the country, building a zoning control system for the ecological environment, and promoting high-quality development with high-level protection.
The third is to adhere to precise governance. Through continuous exploration, Xiamen has extended the experience and practice of "sewage interception and treatment" of Yundang Lake to the upstream of the river basin and pollution sources, implemented precise policies from the root, controlled the source and intercepted pollution, carried out comprehensive treatment of small watersheds in 9 streams in the city, newly renovated and expanded 16 water purification plants, and thoroughly implemented the transformation of the municipal sewage pipe network to "clean up the source", which has accounted for 78% of the total area of the city's built-up area, and fully completed the "investigation, measurement, traceability, treatment and management" of 1216 natural village sewage treatment and 412 sewage outlets into the sea It has effectively promoted and guaranteed the continuous improvement of water quality in coastal waters.
Fourth, adhere to systematic governance. Xiamen firmly grasps the development orientation of a bay-type ecological city, adheres to the concept of systems, and continues to promote Haicang Bay, Wuyuan Bay, Xinglin Bay, Tong'an Bay, The comprehensive renovation of Maluan Bay and other areas, while strengthening the overall prevention and control of land and sea pollution, has withdrawn a total of 258,000 mu of marine aquaculture in the bay, completed the dredging of 170 million cubic meters of sea area, completed the restoration of 1.65 million square meters of beach, increased the area of mangrove forests from 32.6 hectares in 2000 to 173.9 hectares in 2023, and significantly increased the number of rare marine species such as Chinese white dolphins, becoming a model of "one bay, one policy" to promote the implementation of integrated protection and systematic management of the bay ecological environment.
Fifth, adhere to coordinated governance. In recent years, Xiamen has taken the lead in establishing a joint prevention and control mechanism for ecological and environmental protection in the Southwest Fujian Coordinated Development Zone, vigorously promoting the coordinated management of the land and sea ecological environment in the Jiulong River Basin and Xiamen Bay, and promoting the construction of a new pattern of "Greater Xiamen Bay" governance across administrative regions. At the same time, relying on the high-quality ecological environment of the bay, Xiamen vigorously develops blue industries and new productive forces such as marine tourism, marine biotechnology, high-end marine equipment, and modern fishery, and actively integrates into the construction of blue partnerships with ASEAN countries, "Maritime Silk Road" partners, BRICS countries, APEC economies, etc., providing vivid and vivid Xiamen cases and Chinese experience for the coordinated promotion of high-level protection and high-quality development.
The outstanding results and experience concepts shown by the "Xiamen Practice" fully demonstrate the truth and practical power of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, and have extremely important inspirational significance and exemplary leading role for the in-depth practice of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization in the new era and new journey, and to promote the construction of a beautiful China where man and nature coexist in harmony.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will actively support Xiamen to continuously deepen and expand the practice of ecological civilization construction from various aspects such as policies, technologies and projects, and plan and promote the series of beautiful construction of Xiamen's beautiful cities, beautiful villages, beautiful rivers and lakes, and beautiful bays with a higher position, a wider vision and greater efforts, and promote the construction of a large pattern of protection and governance from the top of the mountain to the sea. Efforts will be made to build Xiamen into an important window for the construction of a beautiful China in the new era, and continue to carry out pioneering demonstrations and provide Xiamen's experience for the construction of Chinese-style modernization in harmony between man and nature.
Some time ago, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Modern Ecological Environment Monitoring System", and recently held a national ecological environment monitoring work conference to promote the construction of a modern monitoring system.
The establishment of a modern ecological environment monitoring system is a systematic project, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will promote relevant deployments in a strong, orderly and solid manner. At present and for some time to come, we should mainly do a good job in the following five key areas:
The first is to speed up the construction of a monitoring system that is compatible with the construction of a beautiful China. In line with the evaluation and assessment requirements of the construction of a beautiful China, we will accelerate the completion of shortcomings in the field of monitoring, formulate corresponding monitoring standards, and objectively reflect the effectiveness of the construction of a beautiful China. Realize "beautiful China, where is beautiful, monitoring data tells you".
The second is to improve accurate analysis and prediction capabilities. Do a good job in the correlation analysis and traceability analysis of monitoring data, continuously improve the working mechanism of air quality forecasting, and be a "magic weapon" for accurate, scientific and law-based pollution control, like a "navigator", to guide pollution control directly to the lesions and prescribe the right medicine.
The third is to improve the ability of integrated monitoring from the top of the mountain to the ocean. Comprehensively consider the ecological and environmental elements of the mountains and mountains, above and below the ground, on the shore and in the water, in urban and rural areas, on land and in the ocean, and in the upstream and downstream of river basins, and promote the construction of integrated monitoring capacity in an all-round and region-wide manner.
Fourth, improve the support capacity of monitoring science and technology. Facing the monitoring needs of major businesses such as carbon reduction, pollution reduction, and green expansion, research and propose research and development projects for key monitoring technologies, carry out technical research, and systematically improve the level of monitoring science and technology. Empower with high technology, so that the monitoring eyes are brighter and brighter, the ears are more and more sensitive, and the brain is more and more intelligent.
Fifth, improve the ability of monitoring and supervision. Further strengthen the top-level design, innovate supervision methods and methods, organize and carry out self-monitoring, assistance and guidance for pollutant discharge units, take multiple measures at the same time and multi-pronged measures to curb the problem of environmental monitoring data fraud, and promote the formation of a good atmosphere of "dare not fake, cannot fake, and do not want to fake".
At the same time, this year, our department will organize the third monitoring competition, to promote training, training to promote learning, to learn to promote work, with high morale, exquisite skills, excellent style, to ensure that the monitoring data "true, accurate, complete, fast, new".
The relevant central departments guide the three provinces and municipalities to continue to strengthen comprehensive management, and jointly promote the high-quality development of the manganese industry and the high-level protection of the ecological environment. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment actively supports the comprehensive treatment of manganese pollution from the aspects of policy, capital and technology, incorporates relevant issues into the focus of the central ecological and environmental protection inspectors, issues the "Technical Specifications for Manganese Slag Pollution Control", organizes experts to carry out technical assistance, compiles the "Manganese Triangle" environmental pollution control work manual, promotes the establishment of a joint prevention and control mechanism for the ecological and environmental protection of the "Manganese Triangle" manganese industry in the three provinces and cities, formulates the "three lists" of manganese mines, electrolytic manganese enterprises and manganese slag yards for investigation and treatment, and systematically carries out pollution control and ecological restoration.
With the joint efforts of the three provinces and municipalities and the relevant central departments, the "manganese triangle" pollution control has made positive progress and phased results.
First, a significant breakthrough has been made in the restructuring of the manganese industry. The number of electrolytic manganese enterprises in the "manganese triangle" region has been reduced from 24 to 3, and the production capacity has been reduced from 590,000 tons to 180,000 tons. Second, positive progress has been made in the pollution control of manganese slag fields. All 23 manganese slag farms in Xiushan County, Chongqing have been treated, and Huayuan County in Hunan Province and Songtao County in Guizhou Province are carrying out in-depth pollution control of manganese slag fields in accordance with the principle of "one policy at a time". Third, the pollution control of manganese mines has been promoted in an orderly manner. 26 mine sewage treatment facilities have been built, with a daily treatment capacity of about 63,000 tons.
After three years of joint efforts and solid progress, the long-term extensive and disorderly development of the electrolytic manganese industry in the "Manganese Triangle" region has changed significantly, the overall environmental quality of surface water has shown an improvement trend, the concentration of manganese in major rivers has gradually decreased, the number of over-standard sections and the frequency of over-standard have decreased year by year, and the devastated mining areas in the past are gradually restoring the natural features of beautiful mountains and rivers.
In the next step, we will continue to do a good job in supervision and assistance, urge and guide the three provinces and cities to adhere to the work policy of accurate, scientific and law-based pollution control, continue to make efforts to promote manganese pollution control, and win the battle of "manganese triangle" pollution control with a higher position, a wider vision and greater efforts.
In July last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection that it is necessary to continue to do a good job in the construction of beautiful bays, and "one bay, one policy" to promote the prevention and control of pollution in coastal waters, ecological protection and restoration, and coastal and beach environmental improvement. The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a Beautiful China" issued not long ago put forward clear requirements and detailed deployment arrangements for focusing on the construction of beautiful bays and carrying out the collection of excellent cases of beautiful bays. Here, I would like to brief you on the progress of the construction of the beautiful bay since last year.
First, the scale, quality and efficiency have been further improved. We have issued and implemented the Action Plan for the Construction and Improvement of Beautiful Bays, and on the basis of the previous work, we have promoted the improvement of both the quantity and quality of the construction of beautiful bays in various places, and promoted the construction of beautiful bays in seven coastal cities including Xiamen, Qinhuangdao and Weihai on a pilot basis. At present, more than 130 bays across the country have issued implementation plans for the construction of beautiful bays. Through the coordinated promotion of the integrated protection and systematic management of the bay ecological environment of "one bay and one policy", more and more blue sea and silver beaches, ecological coasts, shallow bottoms of fish, gulls and herons flying together have become landmark achievements and highlights of the construction of beautiful bays.
Second, the construction mode has been further enriched. We have newly selected the second batch of 12 excellent cases of beautiful bays, bringing the total number of two batches of excellent cases in the country to 20, and summarized and condensed a series of experiences and practices such as the "four modernizations" of marine drifting garbage treatment in Xiamen, Fujian, the joint prevention and control of pollution in Yantai, Shandong, the "ecological +" comprehensive treatment of Yancheng, Jiangsu, and the "six-in-one" departmental linkage mechanism in Sanya, Hainan, which fully reflect the practical innovation of coastal places in the construction model of beautiful bays in recent years, and play an important demonstration and leading role.
Third, the supporting system has been further improved. We have strengthened the supervision and guidance of the construction of beautiful bays in coastal areas, and established and implemented a supporting system of "two lines and one look", that is, "taking the pulse" of local practice in the construction of beautiful bays, "collecting wind and practice" of excellent cases, and "looking back" at the construction results. At present, it has carried out the "pulse checking" in 13 bays across the country, launched the "wind collection" in the beautiful bays of Xiamen and Zhangzhou in Fujian, and completed the "retrospective" of the construction results of the first batch of 8 excellent cases.
"By 2027, the completion rate of the beautiful bay will reach about 40%", which is a major task entrusted to us by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. We are deeply aware that this is not only a big goal in terms of quantity, but also a high demand for quality, and the next step will be to continue to promote the construction of a beautiful bay mainly from the following aspects.
The first is to work hard to be deep and practical, and to make characteristics. We will further promote the implementation of the "Action Plan for the Construction and Improvement of Beautiful Bays", focus on the comprehensive management of "one bay and one policy" in more than 100 bays, and build beautiful bays with each other and the United States according to local conditions, not only to significantly improve the ecological environment and sea-friendly quality of the bay, but also to form new characteristics and new advantages in the bay area that strongly support high-quality development and create a high-quality life with outstanding results in the construction of beautiful bays.
The second is to work hard to improve quality and efficiency, and demonstrate and lead. Adhere to the quality as the lifeline of the collection of excellent cases in the beautiful bay, ensure that the selected excellent cases are hard, standing, and pushed, and are praised by the people, affirmed by all parties, and recognized by the society, and play an important role in promoting the quality and efficiency of the construction of the beautiful bay. This year, the third batch of beautiful bay excellent cases has been launched, we will pay close attention to the quality of the bay's ecological environment and the effectiveness of protection and governance, and further strengthen the quantitative evaluation and public satisfaction survey in the collection and selection process.
The third is to work hard to grasp the long-term and improve the mechanism. We will continue to deepen the innovation of normalized and long-term institutional mechanisms for the construction of beautiful bays, organize seven coastal cities to actively explore new ideas and new measures for the construction of beautiful bays in the whole region, and promote the construction of beautiful mountains, rivers, lakes and bays in an integrated manner by land and sea. Adhere to the equal emphasis on governance and supervision, guide and urge coastal localities to do a thorough investigation of the ecological environment of the bay, normalize the implementation of "two lines and one look", and continue to increase the comprehensive supervision and intelligent supervision of the ecological environment of the bay.
In practice, we have profoundly realized that the construction of a beautiful bay is a work that is always done and always new, which is inseparable from the concern and extensive participation of all sectors of society, as well as the insight and strong support of journalists. Some time ago, many reporters and friends here went to Fujian with us to participate in the "Wind Collection" activity of the beautiful bay, and went to the front line to publicize and promote, cheer and make suggestions for the construction of the beautiful bay. We also welcome and look forward to the continued care, support, guidance and supervision of the construction of the beautiful bay by all media and journalists.
The first is to further promote the horizontal ecological protection compensation of river basins. The Ministry of Finance, together with the Ministry of Finance, has steadily promoted the construction of horizontal ecological protection and compensation mechanisms in the entire basin of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and has allocated a total of 8 billion yuan and 4 billion yuan of guidance funds respectively. At present, 21 provinces such as Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu have established 20 inter-provincial river basin compensation mechanisms, and 20 provinces such as Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Shandong have realized the ecological protection compensation of the whole river basin within their jurisdictions, and 5 provinces such as Shaanxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, and Heilongjiang have carried out river basin ecological compensation for key rivers within their jurisdictions.
The second is to continue to promote transfer payments for national key ecological function zones. Cooperate with the Ministry of Finance to carry out transfer payments for key ecological function zones, and carry out monitoring and evaluation of ecological and environmental quality in 810 counties included in the transfer payments for national key ecological function zones, so as to link the allocation of transfer payment funds with the effectiveness of ecological and environmental protection.
The third is to accelerate the promotion of market-oriented compensation. In 28 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), the pilot project of paid use and trading of emission rights has been carried out, and by the end of 2023, the cumulative turnover will be about 32 billion yuan. The world's largest carbon market has been built and smoothly operated, and has completed two compliance cycles, with a cumulative trading volume of about 450 million tons and a turnover of about 25.6 billion yuan by the end of March 2024. The national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market was launched, and four methodologies including the first batch of afforestation carbon sinks were formulated and released. Innovate and develop the eco-environment-oriented development (EOD) model, and open up the path of coordinated promotion of ecological and environmental governance and urban green development.
Just now, a reporter friend mentioned the case of ecological protection compensation, and here, I will briefly introduce three cases:
The first is the case of the Xin'an River Basin. Anhui and Zhejiang provinces have established diversified compensation relationships through financial compensation and counterpart cooperation. The Xin'anjiang Green Development Fund was set up with an initial scale of 2 billion yuan to support ecological governance, environmental protection and green industry development.
The second is the case of the Chishui River Basin. In 2018, the people's governments of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces signed the Agreement on Horizontal Ecological Compensation in the Chishui River Basin. As the first pilot of the horizontal ecological compensation mechanism across multiple provinces in China, the Chishui River has accumulated experience for the whole country to explore and establish a cross-provincial ecological compensation mechanism.
The third is the case of Kubuqi desert governance. Kubuqi focuses on building a diversified investment mechanism for desert governance, and actively mobilizes enterprises and social forces to participate in ecological construction through land transfer, farmers and herdsmen's shareholding, enterprise contracting, and professional cooperative organization operation.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will fully implement the Regulations on Ecological Protection Compensation, work with relevant departments to continue to deepen the reform of the ecological protection compensation system, accelerate the improvement of the ecological protection compensation system and work system, promote the deepening of comprehensive ecological compensation, improve market-oriented and diversified compensation, establish and improve the comprehensive evaluation system of ecological protection compensation, and incorporate the implementation of ecological protection compensation responsibilities and work effectiveness into relevant inspections and assessments. At the same time, we will also summarize experience and practices in a timely manner, regularly publish typical cases, and hope that media friends will also actively pay attention to it and widely publicize and report.
In terms of the construction of the rule of law, the newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law makes detailed provisions on the establishment and improvement of the work system and institutional mechanism for the management and supervision of marine garbage, clarifies that the local people's governments at or above the county level are responsible for the prevention and control of marine garbage pollution, and requires all coastal localities to clarify the areas for the control of marine garbage, establish a marine garbage monitoring and clean-up system and a full-chain work system, and organize their implementation. These regulations reflect the idea of systematic governance and form a closed loop of integrated management of marine garbage on land and sea.
In terms of model innovation, the new model of "blue circulation" marine plastic governance in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province won the United Nations "Champions of the Earth" award, contributing "Chinese strategies" to protect "ocean blue". As you may recall, in 2022, I showed off a phone case made from recycled ocean plastic at a press conference. Through two years of hard work, the "Blue Cycle" has achieved an iterative upgrade from "ocean to shelf" relying on technologies such as blockchain and the Internet of Things, allowing fishermen to pick up and recycle waste plastics at sea and transform them into more high value-added products, becoming a new quality productivity with synergy in pollution reduction and carbon reduction. This time, I will show you a list of "shelf-type" products produced by relevant companies using recycled marine plastics, including various marine plastic particles, as well as beautiful stationery, daily necessities and popular clothing, etc., and scanning the QR code can visually trace the source of marine plastics used in various products.
In terms of governance actions, we organized 11 key bays, including Qinhuangdao Bay and Xiamen Bay, to take the lead in implementing special clean-up operations in the country, and cleaned up about 55,300 tons of marine garbage in the past year, and accumulated rich practical experience through exploration. On this basis, we will work with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to jointly formulate the "Coastal Cities Marine Litter Clean-up Action Plan", which will be issued and implemented in the near future, and the main task is to organize coastal cities to systematically carry out a three-year dragnet marine litter clean-up action focusing on 65 bays adjacent to the built-up areas of cities, and further establish and improve the work system and institutional mechanisms.
In the next step, we will work with relevant departments and coastal localities to further promote the implementation of the "Marine Garbage Cleanup Action Plan for Coastal Cities" in accordance with the latest requirements of the "Marine Environmental Protection Law", and increase the normalization of plastic pollution supervision in key bays through drones, video surveillance and other technical means, guide and urge coastal places to implement marine garbage monitoring, interception, collection, salvage, transportation, treatment and other tasks in accordance with the law, and constantly establish and improve the closed-loop management system from source treatment, environmental cleanup to recycling.
At the same time, we will continue to support Zhejiang Province and Taizhou City to further deepen the pilot exploration and promotion and application of the "blue cycle", and encourage and support other coastal cities across the country to jointly strengthen technological innovation and model innovation in the management and supervision of marine plastic waste, and work together to promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, so that the people can enjoy the blue sea and blue sky and clean beaches.
First, the management object is more comprehensive. On the one hand, the large-scale and wide-ranging pollutant discharge registration units are included in the scope of management; on the other hand, the air, water, solid waste, noise and other environmental elements shall be subject to permit management in accordance with the law, and the requirements for the control of pollutant discharge shall be stipulated, and the requirements for the control of the discharge of toxic and harmful substances, the investigation of hidden soil pollution hazards, and self-monitoring shall also be stipulated for the key soil pollution supervision units.
Second, the approval process is more standardized. It stipulates the application and approval procedures for pollutant discharge permits, clarifies the relevant circumstances such as the first application, re-application and alteration of pollutant discharge permits, and improves the relevant provisions on continuation, adjustment, revocation, cancellation, and replacement of loss.
Third, the supervision based on evidence is more clear. The new measures emphasize that the competent department of ecology and environment shall include the pollutant discharge permit and pollutant discharge registration information in the law enforcement and supervision database, include the law enforcement inspection of the pollutant discharge permit into the annual plan of ecological and environmental law enforcement, strengthen the list of law enforcement inspections of the items recorded in the pollutant discharge permit, and regularly organize and carry out inspections on the implementation of the pollutant discharge permit implementation report.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to do a good job in the publicity and interpretation of the new measures, strengthen guidance and assistance and follow-up supervision, promote the full implementation of the pollutant discharge permit system, and serve the improvement of the quality of the ecological environment.
Through the implementation of the three-base survey, we can comprehensively grasp the distribution of various pollutants in China's marine environment, the sources of pollution and their ecological environmental impacts, etc., provide basic data for the comprehensive assessment of the basic status, change trend and problem risk of the marine ecological environment in the new era, and also provide decision-making basis for the formulation and implementation of medium and long-term strategic planning and policy systems.
Since last year, we have organized more than 60 units such as national and local monitoring agencies, universities and scientific research institutes to participate in the three-base investigation, with a total of more than 2,200 technical personnel, more than 170 survey vessels, and a total voyage of more than 90,000 nautical miles. The survey of key pollution sources such as 102 sewage outlets, satellite remote sensing surveys of all mainland coastlines, and drone surveys of key shore sections and beaches are very rich in content, with a total of more than 170,000 survey samples, more than 310,000 survey data, and about 3.4TB of various image data.
At the same time, through front-line training, a marine ecological environment survey team has been forged, which has effectively improved China's comprehensive marine ecological environment survey capabilities.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to promote the follow-up tasks of the three-base investigation. The first is to continue to carry out the analysis and testing of survey samples, and organize a comprehensive evaluation of the results of the survey data, so as to systematically grasp the ecological environment and change trend of the sea areas under China's jurisdiction in the new era. The second is to guide and supervise all coastal localities to carry out in-depth detailed surveys of 283 bays, so as to more scientifically and accurately grasp the characteristics of ecological and environmental endowments and problem risks of each bay. The third is to promote the integration of the results of the three-base survey with high quality, collect data from a variety of sources, effectively integrate the wisdom of experts in related fields, strive to build a systematic, comprehensive and authoritative basic database of marine ecological environment, and study and form a number of targeted, strategic and forward-looking comprehensive evaluation reports and decision-making support products.
By 2025, we plan to complete the tasks of the national and local three-base surveys, basically find out the "family background" of China's marine ecological environment in the new era, scientifically determine the baseline and starting point of the construction of a beautiful China in the field of marine ecological environment on the new journey, and provide strong support for the supervision of marine ecological environmental protection in the current and future periods.
Pei Xiaofei:Thank you for your question. From April 8 to 11, a delegation of climate envoys from the European Union and its member states France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark visited China successfully. During the visit, Special Envoy Liu Zhenmin and Vice Minister Zhao Yingmin held talks with the EU side respectively, and had in-depth friendly exchanges on key issues in the multilateral climate process, their respective climate policies and actions, China-EU climate cooperation and other issues, and agreed to implement the important consensus of Chinese and EU leaders, deepen climate dialogue and cooperation, and jointly promote global climate governance.
Zhang Zhifeng:Thank you for your question. China attaches great importance to the construction of ecological carbon sinks. The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality" and the "Action Plan for Carbon Peaking Before 2030" both call for consolidating the carbon sink capacity of the ecosystem and increasing the increment of the carbon sink of the ecosystem, and put forward clear requirements for marine carbon sinks, including improving the carbon sequestration capacity of mangroves, seagrass beds, salt marshes, etc., and improving the statistical monitoring capacity of carbon sinks such as the ocean.
The establishment of a national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market is an institutional innovation to mobilize the whole society to participate in greenhouse gas emission reduction actions. The National Greenhouse Gas Voluntary Emission Reduction Trading Market supports the development of projects that have important contributions to carbon reduction and sink increase, such as marine carbon sinks, and has a positive effect on China's realization of nationally determined contributions.
In October last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) jointly issued the Administrative Measures for Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading (Trial). In view of the compilation of the methodology of the voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction project, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has comprehensively solicited methodological suggestions through open solicitation from the whole society, and carried out the evaluation and selection of the methodology in an orderly manner. On this basis, in accordance with the principles of high social expectations, clear emission reduction mechanism, guaranteed data quality, both social and ecological benefits, and effective supervision, our ministry has formulated and released the first batch of four methodologies, including the mangrove construction methodology. In January this year, the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market was launched, marking the completion of a national carbon market system in which the mandatory carbon market and the voluntary carbon market are complementary and interconnected.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will support eligible mangrove planting projects to participate in the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading, while strengthening the standardization and guidance of the preparation of legal methods, unblocking the channels for reflecting methodological suggestions, carrying out the evaluation and selection of methodologies on a regular basis, and encouraging all kinds of social entities to explore and study more methodologies in the field of marine carbon sinks suitable for China's national conditions on the basis of docking with international rules, mature one, release one, and actively promote the improvement of marine carbon sink capacity to help carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
Pei Xiaofei:Thank you to Deputy Director Zhang Zhifeng, Mr. Liu Dejun, and thank you for your participation.
