Promote the continuous improvement of the ecological environment
What will be the results of ecological and environmental protection in 2023? What arrangements will be made to promote the continuous improvement of the quality of the ecological environment this year? How to rectify the problem of fraud by third-party environmental protection service agencies? At the second "ministerial channel" of the second session of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress held on the 8th, Huang Runqiu, minister of ecology and environment, responded to hot issues of ecological and environmental protection.
Huang Runqiu said that the government work report submitted for consideration affirmed the achievements made in the field of ecological civilization construction in the past year with "stable improvement in the quality of the ecological environment". "This achievement is not easy to come by. ”
He introduced that in 2023, the average concentration of PM2.5 in cities at and above the prefecture level across the country will be 30 micrograms/cubic meter, maintaining an overall trend of stability and improvement, lower than the average from 2020 to 2022, and nearly 3 micrograms/cubic meter lower than the annual target in 2023. Last year, the proportion of excellent surface water quality sections in the country reached 89.4%, 4.4 percentage points higher than the target of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and the water quality of the main streams of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River remained stable at Class II.
"In 2023, ecological and environmental protection has encountered many difficulties and challenges. Huang Runqiu said, such as in the management of the atmospheric environment, one is the new crown epidemic prevention and control after the smooth transition of the social economic activities rebounded significantly, some areas of pollutant emissions increased;
Huang Runqiu said that in 2023, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with relevant departments, has taken a series of effective measures to promote the steady improvement of environmental quality.
How to make efforts to complete the goal of "continuous improvement of ecological environment quality" proposed in the government work report this year?
Huang Runqiu said that it is necessary to continue to fight the tough battle of pollution prevention and control, and strive to make landmark progress in the fields of air quality improvement, water environment quality improvement and water ecological restoration, rural environmental remediation, and hazardous waste risk management and control, so as to make a good start and lay a solid foundation for comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China.
At the same time, we will focus on major regional strategies to promote the construction of the Beautiful China Pilot Zone, and promote the construction of beautiful provinces, beautiful cities, beautiful villages, beautiful rivers and lakes, and beautiful bays at different levels. We will vigorously promote green, low-carbon, and high-quality development, and promote the adjustment and optimization of the industrial structure, energy structure, and transportation structure. We will speed up the zoning and control of the ecological environment, and build a national carbon emission market, especially a voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market, to support the green transformation. Intensify the supervision of ecosystem protection and restoration, and strive to improve the diversity, stability and sustainability of ecosystems.
In response to the media's concern about the fraud of third-party environmental protection service providers, Huang Runqiu said that environmental impact assessment and environmental monitoring are the basic systems in the field of ecological and environmental protection. These illegal acts undermine the fair market order, damage the credibility of the government and the environmental rights and interests of the people, and must be resolutely cracked down on to eradicate the breeding ground.
According to reports, since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, has carried out special rectification of the problem of fraud by third-party environmental protection service agencies for four consecutive years. Through big data supervision, supervision and assistance, "four noes and two straights" inspections, and central ecological and environmental protection inspections, we have resolutely investigated and dealt with illegal acts of counterfeiting, and achieved remarkable results.
Huang Runqiu said that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to carry out special rectification actions with relevant departments, and will further strengthen the penetrating supervision of "big data + artificial intelligence", and use scientific and technological power to build a strong line of defense against counterfeiting.
■ The achievements made in the field of ecological environment construction in 2023 are not easy to come by
Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine: In recent years, the improvement of the quality of the ecological environment has been obvious to all, and the people can clearly feel that the environment around them is getting better, but last year there were still heavy pollution weather in many places, I would like to ask Minister Huang, how do you view the progress and results of ecological environmental protection in 2023? What are the considerations and arrangements for this year's work? Thank you.
Huang Runqiu: Thank you for your question. Looking at the sky outside today, the sky is blue, PM2.5 is in the single digits, and to be honest, I feel a lot more relaxed standing in this place. In the government work report, Premier Li Qiang affirmed the achievements made in the field of ecological civilization construction in the past year with the steady improvement of the quality of the ecological environment, which should be said to be hard-won. The past 2023 has been a very complicated year for ecological and environmental protection, and we have encountered many difficulties and challenges. Taking atmospheric environment management as an example, first of all, after the transition of the epidemic, social and economic activities have rebounded significantly, and the emission of pollutants in some areas has increased significantly, which has brought great pressure to us to stabilize the quality of the atmospheric environment. In addition, last year's meteorological conditions were extremely unfavorable, and in 2023, our country's meteorological conditions have entered a new El Niño cycle, which is typically characterized by the increase in average temperature, and the periodic alternation of cold and warm has become more and more frequent and more intense, which has a serious impact on our improvement of atmospheric environmental quality. For example, in the first half of the year, under the influence of strong cold air from the northwest and Mongolia, our country experienced 17 large-scale strong sand and dust weather processes, the most in the past ten years, and this alone caused us to lose 3.3 percentage points in the proportion of good days, which is not a small number. Another example is that a heavy pollution weather process caused by unfavorable meteorological conditions such as high temperature, high humidity and static stability at the end of the year has raised the national average PM2.5 by 1.1 micrograms per cubic meter.
Therefore, in the face of such a grim situation, we have taken a series of effective measures together with relevant departments to mitigate and hedge such adverse effects. Last year, 220 million tonnes of ultra-low emissions were completed in the steel industry, more than in the previous three years combined, and 2 million households in rural areas were renovated for clean heating, effectively reducing the use of loose coal. We have also fully implemented the China 6B emission standards for light vehicles in China. In addition, we have stepped up supervision and assistance, urging local governments to rectify 87,000 gas-related environmental problems. It should be said that these measures have produced good results, reversed the passive situation, and promoted the steady improvement of environmental quality.
Taking the air quality as an example, the average concentration of PM2.5 in cities at and above the prefecture level was 30 micrograms per cubic meter last year, maintaining an overall trend of stability and improvement. We are also 1 microgram per cubic meter lower than the three-year average during the pandemic, 3 micrograms per cubic meter better than the 2023 annual target, and even greater than the pre-pandemic 2019 level, with PM2.5 falling by 6 micrograms per cubic meter in four years, an improvement of 16.7%. This is the quality of the atmospheric environment. Last year, 89.4 percent of the country's surface water quality was excellent, 4.4 percentage points higher than the target of the 14th Five-Year Plan. There are many more of these figures, so I won't list them all. In a word, after an extraordinary year of 2023, our great motherland has become more and more beautiful.
Looking forward to 2024, the government work report proposes that the quality of the ecological environment should continue to improve. We will resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, take the construction of a beautiful China as the guide, work together to promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth, and further promote the central ecological and environmental protection inspection, so as to support high-quality development with high-level protection. We focus on the following areas:
First, we must continue to fight the tough battle of pollution prevention and control, and fight several beautiful landmark battles with higher standards. We consider making some landmark achievements in the areas of air quality improvement, water environment quality improvement, water ecological restoration, rural environmental remediation, and hazardous waste risk management and control, so as to lay a solid foundation for the construction of a beautiful China.
Second, we need to focus on major regional strategies to promote the construction of the Beautiful China Pilot Zone, and promote the construction of beautiful provinces, beautiful cities, beautiful villages, beautiful bays, and beautiful rivers and lakes at different levels.
Third, we need to vigorously promote green, low-carbon, and high-quality development, focus on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and focus on pollution and carbon reduction, and promote the optimization and adjustment of our industrial structure, energy structure, and transportation structure. We will speed up the zoning and control of the ecological environment, and further implement and build a national carbon emission market, especially the recently launched voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market, so as to provide support for our green transformation.
Finally, we will further strengthen the supervision of ecosystem protection and restoration, and strive to improve the sustainability, diversity and stability of our country's ecosystems.
Thank you.
■ Maintain a high-pressure posture of cracking down on fraud and illegal acts of third-party environmental protection service agencies
Chengdu Business Daily Red Star News: Hello Minister Huang, in recent years, the media has reported a number of cases of fraud by third-party environmental protection service providers, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has also repeatedly adopted the "four noes and two straights" approach to local inspections last year to promote the special rectification of the problem of fraud by third-party environmental protection service agencies.
Huang Runqiu: Thank you to this reporter from Chengdu Business Daily, I have lived and worked in Chengdu for more than 30 years, and I have a lot of feelings. Environmental impact assessment and environmental monitoring are the basic systems in the field of ecological and environmental protection, which are very important. However, in recent years, third-party environmental protection service agencies have been exposed to data fraud in the process of preparing EIA documents and self-monitoring by enterprises. Tampering with instrument parameters, and even using hacker programs to invade public computer systems to modify monitoring data, is extremely bad in nature, and the trend of counterfeiting is still developing in the direction of specialization and chaining. These illegal acts undermine the fair market order, greatly damage the credibility of the government and the environmental rights and interests of the people, and also impact our bottom line. We must not tolerate these acts and must resolutely combat them, and we must eradicate the breeding ground for them.
Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", we have worked with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation to carry out special rectification of the problem of fraud by third-party environmental protection service providers for four consecutive years. We use the "four noes and two straights" inspection, as you have just mentioned, supervision and assistance, big data supervision and even the central ecological and environmental protection inspectors and other effective means to crack down on the fraud of third-party environmental protection service agencies, it should be said that good results have been achieved. There are several aspects overall:
First, we have investigated and dealt with a number of typical cases, which have formed an effective deterrent. In the past three years, we have investigated and dealt with 2,260 third-party environmental protection service agencies that have violated the law, transferred 193 cases to relevant departments for criminal filing, and publicly exposed 457 typical cases. In addition, we have investigated and dealt with 4,255 cases of fraud in environmental self-monitoring, and transferred 930 cases of suspected violations and crimes to relevant departments. These cases include the environmental impact assessment fraud case of Shandong Jinhua Company, the environmental impact assessment fraud case of Jiangxi Zhanhang Company, and the motor vehicle inspection fraud case of Guangdong Guanghe Company, which had a relatively large impact on society last year.
Second, we have promoted the linkage between executions and improved the efficiency of supervision and law enforcement. Together with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security, we have built a linkage law enforcement mechanism that connects executions and promotes them in an integrated manner, and has formed a "combination punch" of joint consultation, joint listing and supervision, joint publication of typical cases, and joint deployment of related work, which has effectively improved the efficiency of our regulatory law enforcement. For example, in the case of the Shandong Jinhua Company that I mentioned earlier, the EIA company used affiliation and forged other people's signatures to act as the manufacturer of false EIA documents, and forged 48 false environmental impact reports and 879 environmental impact report forms in recent years, which is huge and bad in nature. In the past, there were "three difficulties" in the process of investigating and handling such cases, the first was difficult to file a case, the second was difficult to collect evidence, and the third was difficult to characterize. At present, the four people involved in this case have been criminally punished, and it can be said that this is the first case of fraud since the establishment of the EIA system.
Third, the legal system has been further improved. The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) and the Supreme People's Court (SPP) have revised and promulgated the judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court, clarifying the conviction and sentencing standards for third-party environmental protection service providers providing false documents in the process of environmental impact assessment, environmental monitoring, and carbon emission inspection and testing. Recently, the State Council issued the Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emission Trading, which severely punishes the falsification of carbon emission data, punishes both institutions and those responsible, and cancels their practice qualifications if the circumstances are serious. These systems have undoubtedly strengthened our ability to supervise third-party environmental service providers.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will work with relevant departments to continue to carry out special rectification actions to maintain a high-pressure situation of cracking down on fraud and illegal acts of third-party environmental protection service agencies. At the same time, we will further strengthen the "penetrating" supervision of big data and artificial intelligence, and use the power of science and technology to build a strong line of defense against counterfeiting. Finally, we also welcome the news media and all the journalists and friends present here today to give full play to the advantages of public opinion supervision and work with us to promote the healthy and orderly development of the third-party environmental protection service market.
Thank you.
