Zhong Huanping: Pay more attention to source prevention and control to form a high-level control system

Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, said at the 2024 annual meeting of the CCICED that he will work hard from five aspects to give full play to the leading, optimizing and counteracting role of the ecological environment, support high-quality development with high-level protection, and strive to build a harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Beautiful China. The first of all is to pay more attention to source prevention and control, form a high-level control system, and give full play to the leading role of source prevention and control in high-level protection and high-quality development.

Focusing on prevention and control at the source is like "treating diseases before they are" treated "by traditional Chinese medicine, which is the best treatment method with comprehensive benefits. Paying attention to source prevention and control and forming a high-level control system are fundamental solutions to reduce carbon emissions and pollutant emissions from the root causes and improve environmental quality. They are also important measures to achieve high-level protection. Failure to prevent and control at the source and blindly spread projects will not only bring serious ecological and environmental problems, but also damage the foundation of sustainable economic development.

In the ten years of the new era, my country has continued to increase ecological and environmental protection efforts, and pollutant emissions have continued to be significantly reduced. The emission reduction of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides has exceeded 84% and 58% respectively. The energy consumption intensity has dropped by 26.4%. Carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP have dropped by 34.4%. At the same time, the economic aggregate has achieved brilliant results of an average annual growth of 6.5%. High-level ecological and environmental protection will not only hinder economic development, but will instead become an important support for high-quality development.

Strengthen the source control role of the EIA and maintain the first line of defense of green waters and green mountains in development. Environmental assessment is a legal guarantee that restricts access to projects and parks, and is a subjective system for source prevention. The important role of environmental assessment in serving high-quality economic development must be fully utilized. It is necessary to further deepen the reform of the environmental impact assessment system. On the one hand, we should promote the "flexible" environmental impact assessment management and promote the implementation of major projects as soon as possible on the premise of ensuring ecological security. Optimize the environmental impact assessment management categories of some projects with simple production processes, mature pollution prevention measures, and small environmental impact to effectively reduce the burden on grassroots and enterprises. On the other hand, we must ensure that the environmental impact assessment management is "manageable", strengthen the management of emission permits and law enforcement supervision of enterprises that cancel the project environmental assessment, urge enterprises to conscientiously implement ecological and environmental protection responsibilities and measures, and ensure production and operation in accordance with laws and regulations and discharge standards. At the same time, we will continue to maintain a high-pressure situation, increase efforts to crack down on fraud in the EIA, comprehensively strengthen the quality supervision of EIA documents, and effectively build the first line of defense for source prevention.

In-depth implementation of zoning management and differentiated management and control of the ecological environment to provide a "green yardstick" for optimizing productivity layout from the source. The resource endowments and environmental capacity of each place are different. Ecological environment zoning management and control prevent unreasonable industrial layout from the source and resolve the contradiction between development and protection by "clarifying the bottom line" and "drawing boundaries" for development. All localities must make good use of the results of ecological and environmental zoning control. On the one hand, they must increase pollution control efforts in key industries to reduce environmental pressure; on the other hand, they must optimize and adjust the industrial layout according to the positioning of functional areas. It is necessary to take the ecological environment zoning management and control system as the starting point, implement differentiated and precise management and control, and optimize the land space development and protection pattern to limit economic activities and human behavior to the limits that natural resources and the ecological environment can bear, so that resources, production, Consumption and other factors are matched and adapted to achieve coordinated development of environment and economy.

We must take pollution reduction and carbon reduction as the overall starting point to promote the comprehensive green transformation of economic development. Coordinated promotion of pollution reduction and carbon reduction will help change the production model and consumption model of "large-scale production, large-scale consumption, and large-scale emissions" from the source and increase the green momentum of economic growth. On the one hand, we must accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, the butterfly transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, promote the realization of intelligent, green and high-end development, and continue to reduce energy resource consumption and carbon emissions per unit of output. On the other hand, we must cultivate and expand emerging industries, lay out and build future industries, improve the modern industrial system, focus on new generation information technology, new energy, new materials and other fields, accelerate the cultivation of new drivers of economic growth, and strive to achieve leapfrog development in new fields and new tracks. At the same time, different regions, cities, industrial parks and enterprises should proceed from their own development levels and characteristics, resource and energy endowments, and coordinated emission reduction potential to accelerate the formation of typical collaborative innovation practices and effective models for pollution reduction and carbon reduction with unique characteristics. Achieve synergy and efficiency of pollution reduction and carbon reduction at multiple levels and in multiple fields to promote my country's economy in a more sustainable direction.

Development and protection are not one-or "one-choice questions", but two-way choices that take into account both benefits and are not inconsistent. Faced with the new situation and based on the new stage, we must adhere to the bottom line that the quality of the ecological environment can only improve but not deteriorate from the source, consolidate the ecological foundation for high-quality development, and embark on a new path of China-style modernization with a green background.