Shanghai issued 20 articles on "Deepening the Reform of Environmental Impact Assessment and Emission Permit System"

The "Implementation Opinions of the Shanghai City People's Government on Deepening the Reform of Environmental Impact Assessment and Pollutant Discharge Permit System"(hereinafter referred to as the "Reform Opinions") was implemented on July 1 this year. The "Reform Opinions" focus on implementing the requirements of the country and Shanghai City to comprehensively deepen reforms, improving the source prevention system with the environmental assessment system as the main body, building a new development pattern, developing new productive forces, and supporting high-quality development with high-level protection.

The promulgation and implementation of the "Reform Opinions" marks a new stage in the reform of Shanghai's environmental assessment and emission permit systems. According to the Environmental Assessment Department of the Shanghai City Ecological Environment Bureau, in 2018, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment authorized Shanghai City to pilot the reform of the environmental assessment system. Since then, Shanghai has launched a series of reform policies. Some reform measures have been the first in the country. The efficiency of environmental assessment approval has been significantly improved, giving full play to the role of environmental assessment in serving the overall social and economic situation, and effectively making positive contributions to the city's stabilizing the economy and promoting development. In the new stage, Shanghai will focus on the important mission of building the "Five Centers", deepen the reform of the environmental assessment and emission permit system, continue to improve the quality of the ecological environment, and comprehensively promote the green transformation and development of the economy and society.

The "Reform Opinions" take the four aspects of "adhering to the system concept, strengthening innovation leadership, improving service efficiency, and adhering to the bottom line of prevention" as the overall requirements, and propose a total of 20 reform measures in 7 aspects to systematically promote ecological environment zoning management and control, planning environmental assessment, The full-process reform of project environmental assessment and pollution discharge permit will establish a closed-loop management system of access system and law enforcement supervision system.

The "Reform Opinions" emphasize the need to improve the city's ecological environment zoning management and control system. At the municipal level, we will promote the coordination and linkage between planning preparation, industrial development, urban construction and other fields and ecological environment zoning management and control, and improve the "one map" collaborative management and control mechanism with land and spatial planning. At the district-level level, refine the division of management and control evaluation units, carry out regional spatial ecological environment assessments, formulate regional ecological environment management lists, guide the rational development of regional spaces, and promote green, low-carbon and high-quality development.

The "Reform Opinions" clearly define the need to optimize the planning environmental assessment management mechanism and strengthen the source prevention role of environmental pollution and risks during the planning stage. Environmental impact assessment work will be carried out simultaneously in eligible areas when preparing detailed plans, improving the preparation of planning plans, and simplifying the approval of environmental impact assessment of projects in the area. If the detailed planning of municipal and district-level industrial parks is slightly adjusted and the original environmental control requirements need to be optimized and adjusted, an optimization adjustment demonstration explanation can be prepared without re-submitting the planning and environmental assessment.

In terms of environmental assessment of construction projects, the "Reform Opinions" clearly will formulate three directories to maximize the company's sense of gain. Amend the city's environmental impact assessment classified management directory, simplify and exempt the environmental impact assessment procedures for a number of projects; support the environmental impact assessment reform policies for key areas and key industries, formulate a directory of key industries in categories, and implement environmental impact assessment optimization and simplified management for construction projects not included in the directory of key industries; Supporting regional space ecological environment assessment issued a key project approval list, and projects outside the list were exempted from going through environmental impact assessment procedures.

In terms of the approval reform of emission permits, the "Reform Opinions" innovatively introduced the "one-time approval" reform measure of emission permits that is exempt from environmental impact assessment. Report form items in the linkage industrial park that meet the requirements of the planning environmental assessment and effectively accept emission permits are exempted from processing Environmental impact assessment procedures, directly apply for emission permits before putting into production; a "loose-leaf system" for changes to emission permits has been introduced, and multiple changes will be uniformly incorporated into the emission permit when the certificate is renewed; With the goal of improving environmental quality, the accounting of permitted emissions in some key industries is linked to the average emission level of the industry to continue to improve regional environmental quality.

Strengthening the connection and linkage of the entire chain system is also an important part of this reform. The "Reform Opinions" clearly deepen the environmental impact assessment linkage of planning environmental impact assessment projects, linking industrial parks, and areas outside industrial parks where planning environmental assessments have been completed. The environmental assessments of construction projects that are not included in the list of key industries can be optimized and simplified. Promote the connection between environmental assessment and emission permit systems, pilot a "one directory" for environmental assessment and emission permit management in Pudong New District, and strengthen the unity and complementarity of the environmental assessment and emission permit management directories of construction projects. Comprehensively implement the "two-in-one" approval of environmental impact assessment and emission permit, promote the unification of the two permit management processes and accounting methods, and gradually promote and improve the reform of the environmental impact assessment management system with the emission permit system as the core. On the basis of the pilot project in the Lingang New Area, comprehensive approval of multiple administrative licensing matters such as environmental assessment, sewage discharge permits, setting up sewage outlets into rivers, and hazardous waste business permits will be implemented.

The "Reform Opinions" promote more precise and refined environmental assessment and emission permit service guarantees. Formulate special reform policies for key areas such as Pudong New District, Lingang New Area, and Five New Cities that serve the country and the city's major development strategies. Special support policies for environmental access that are tailored to the characteristics of the industry are tailored to the development needs of key industries such as integrated circuits and biomedicine, as well as industries such as intelligent manufacturing spaces and pilot bases. Strengthen the guarantee of approval services for major projects, open a "green channel" for approval, customize enterprise "service packages", explore and develop artificial intelligence-assisted approval application scenarios, and ensure the effectiveness of major projects. Optimize the sources and channels of total indicators of major pollutants in this city, and improve the environmental impact assessment mechanism for carbon emissions.

The "Reform Opinions" emphasize the need to ensure good control, keep the bottom line, and prevent risks for high-quality development, strictly enforce environmental impact assessment approval and emission permit management, strictly control the access of "two highs and one low" projects, and improve the level of intelligent supervision. Relying on the environmental impact assessment comprehensive approval system and the emission permit management platform,"penetrating" supervision is implemented for approval departments at all levels. Strengthen the supervision of third-party service agencies, implement credit rating evaluation of EIA compilers, and establish a supervision system for third-party service agencies for emission permits. Strengthen in-process and post-event supervision, implement hierarchical classification and "differentiated" law enforcement supervision, and urge enterprises to fulfill their main responsibilities for ecological and environmental protection.

The relevant person in charge of the Environmental Assessment Department of the Shanghai City Ecological Environment Bureau said that supporting policies and technical guidelines related to the "Reform Opinions" will be formulated and promulgated, the approval process and operating rules will be clarified, so that the reform measures can be implemented, and a number of replicable and replicable innovative reform systems will serve the country and the city's major development strategies, support high-quality economic and social development with high-level protection of the ecological environment, and write a new chapter in the harmonious coexistence of man and nature in a modern international metropolis.