This newspaper interviewed Yu Lei of the Academy of Environmental Planning: In-depth exploration of the collaborative technical path and management mode of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the zoning control of the ecological environment

A few days ago, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Zoning Control of the Ecological Environment" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), making systematic arrangements for strengthening the zoning and control of the ecological environment, and providing action guidelines for strictly abiding by the red line of ecological protection, the bottom line of environmental quality, and the upper line of resource utilization, and scientifically guiding various development, protection and construction activities.

How to promote high-quality economic and social development in the implementation of ecological environment zoning control? How to do a good job in the connection between ecological environment zoning control and the land spatial planning system? How will ecological environment zoning control help green and low-carbon development? What are the practices worth learning from? In view of these problems, the reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Yu Lei, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Planning of the Academy of Environmental Planning of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and director of the ecological environment zoning control center.

Yu Lei, researcher, is currently the deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Planning and the director of the Research Center for Ecological Environment Zoning Control of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (Beautiful China Construction Research Institute) of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. He is mainly engaged in the research and practice of the construction strategy of Beautiful China, ecological environment planning, ecological environment zoning and control, etc.

China Environment News: The "Opinions" pointed out that the implementation of ecological environment zoning control is of great significance to promote high-quality development. In your opinion, how will the zoning control of the ecological environment balance development and protection, and promote high-quality economic and social development?

Yu Lei:The zoning and control of the ecological environment is closely connected with the needs of regional development and protection, and the region is divided into three types of control units: priority protection, key control and general control, and classified management is implemented, which can effectively avoid "general coarse policies" and "one-size-fits-all management", and make room for high-quality development while promoting the solution of outstanding ecological and environmental problems. I think it can be elaborated from three dimensions: the division of control units, the compilation of access lists, and the implementation and application.

First of all, in the process of delineating the management and control unit, based on the ecological protection red line, priority protection should be given to areas with important ecological functions and sensitive and fragile ecological environment, so as to keep the natural ecological security boundary. Carry out key management and control of areas with high pressure to improve the quality of the ecological environment, high intensity of resource and energy consumption, concentrated pollutant emissions, serious ecological damage, and high environmental risks, maintain the bottom line of ecological environment quality, help all localities implement control requirements in ecological protection work, and guide the formulation and implementation of ecosystem protection and restoration plans. For example, Hengshui City has classified the Hengshui Lake Nature Reserve as a priority protection unit and the surrounding area as a key management and control unit, and strictly implemented the control requirements such as the removal of existing enterprises in the reserve, the relocation of villages, and the prohibition of illegal development and construction activities, which effectively reduced the environmental risk of Hengshui Lake and helped improve regional biodiversity and ecological environment quality.

At the same time, in the process of compiling the access list, the protection and functional maintenance of the ecosystem are strengthened for the priority protection units, the pollutant emission control and environmental risk prevention and control are strengthened for the key control units, and the general control units maintain the basic stability of the ecological environment quality, and the differentiated and precise control of the three types of units is implemented to achieve better protection of the priority protection units and better development of the key control units. In Jimo District, Qingdao City, 24 hot-dip zinc enterprises in the jurisdiction optimize the industrial layout through the ecological environment management and control unit, and promote the upgrading and transformation of hot-dip galvanizing enterprises with unit access requirements and emission standards. In the process of enterprise optimization and upgrading, Jimo District has also established a linkage mechanism between the ecological environment access list and the pollutant discharge permit to promote the agglomeration and development of the hot-dip galvanizing industry, concentrate on pollution control, and guide the green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading of the industry.

In addition, in the process of implementation and application of zoning management and control results, the policy requirements of ecological protection, environmental quality, resource utilization and other aspects are integrated, spatialized and informatized to support efficient, convenient and intelligent decision-making applications. In the process of macro decision-making, the government can rely on the zoning control of the ecological environment to make quick judgments, avoid major strategic, planning and project decision-making risks in advance, reduce administrative costs, reduce investment risks, and enterprises can actively avoid the risk of violations through independent inquiries, and improve the level and efficiency of prevention at the source of the ecological environment. Since 2019, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Guangdong and other provinces (municipalities) have successively launched the open query service of the "three lines and one order" ecological environment zoning management and control platform, realizing one-click check of environmental access, and providing convenient and fast environmental rationality research and judgment for investment promotion and project site selection.

China Environment News: The "Opinions" put forward that it is necessary to strengthen the dynamic connection between the zoning control of the ecological environment and the territorial spatial planning. In your opinion, how to do a good job in the connection between ecological environment zoning control and territorial spatial planning system, and optimize the development and protection pattern?

Yu Lei:The zoning control of the ecological environment is closely related to the territorial spatial planning, and is consistent in the basic base map, ecological protection red line, and statutory protection area, but at the same time, there are significant differences in the management objects, management scales, management methods, etc., and the two systems adhere to the bottom-line thinking and systematic thinking in their respective fields, and implement systematic governance, comprehensive governance, and source governance, so as to jointly ensure safety and promote development.

In the next step, it is necessary to implement the relevant requirements of the "Opinions", and in accordance with the idea of "full connection, each with its own focus, coordinated efforts, and step-by-step advancement", orderly promote the connection between ecological and environmental zoning control and land spatial planning, and form a joint institutional force. To do a good job in the connection between the two, it is necessary to promote it in a coordinated manner, including systems, achievements, applications, and work guarantees.

First, it is necessary to strengthen the institutional convergence, and do a good job in the full connection with the territorial spatial planning in the formulation of the ecological environment zoning control plan, unit demarcation, inventory compilation, information sharing, etc., and actively promote the inclusion of institutional convergence requirements in the formulation and revision of relevant laws and regulations such as territorial spatial planning and ecological environmental protection, deepen and refine the convergence requirements in the relevant management system and standard and specification system, and do a good job in relevant research and pilot work. Second, it is necessary to strengthen the convergence of achievements, and in the process of formulating the ecological environment zoning control plan, a unified national basic geographic information map should be adopted with the territorial spatial planning, and a set of ecological protection redline results should be shared. Establish a normalized achievement sharing mechanism, smooth the interconnection channels of the platform, and improve the accuracy and timeliness of the connection work. In the dynamic update and regular adjustment of the zoning control plan, do a good job of dynamic connection with the results of the "three districts and three lines". For example, the zoning control of Jinan City and the national air plan have been fully connected in multiple rounds in the preparation process, in which the zoning control is based on the national air ecological protection red line and the optimization results of nature reserves to form the results of ecological space zoning control. With reference to the results of the simulation and evaluation of pollution of water, gas, soil and other environmental elements controlled by the zoning control, the national air plan determines the achievements of the municipal ventilation corridor, the key layout area of urban sewage treatment facilities, the classification of urban industrial groups in the starting area of new and old kinetic energy conversion, the ecological restoration of the Yellow River ecological landscape belt, and the key areas of ecological restoration in the southern mountainous area, and further refines the implementation in the national air planning of relevant districts and counties, and jointly guides the preparation of land and space planning at the district and county level.

Third, it is necessary to strengthen the connection of applications, establish a collaborative and linkage working mechanism, rely on digital platforms at all levels, and collaboratively support the formulation of major strategies, major policies, major planning, and the implementation of major projects by setting up parallel approval interfaces for platforms, opening up mutual use permissions, and sharing the functions of intelligent analysis application modules, so as to scientifically guide all kinds of development, protection and construction activities. For example, Xiamen zoning control and national air planning both use the city's "multi-plan integration" platform to conduct parallel approval of construction projects, and the zoning control focuses on reviewing the compliance of the environmental requirements of the control unit and list where the project is to be located, and the national air planning focuses on reviewing the compliance of the land classification of the proposed site of the project.

Fourth, it is necessary to strengthen work security, make full use of relevant technical exchange platforms, strengthen exchanges and discussions, focus on the connection of the two systems in terms of theory, technology, management, and application, carry out research on major topics, and constantly explore new paths and new models of convergence, strengthen guidance and training for grassroots work, improve the technical ability of grassroots management institutions, and standardize the convergence work of various places.

China Environment News: "Opinions" clearly pointed out that to carry out ecological environment zoning control pollution reduction and carbon reduction collaborative pilot, the reporter noted that some areas have carried out this work, what is the effect, what is the next step?

Yu Lei:Since 2022, in order to establish an ecological environment zoning control system that is coordinated with carbon peak and carbon neutrality, under the unified organization and promotion of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 16 regions across the country have carried out pilot work on pollution reduction and carbon reduction at three levels: cities, counties, districts, and development zones.

From the perspective of the analysis of the current situation, through the characteristics, spatial characteristics and evolution trends of air pollutants and carbon emissions, the key areas and key industries of collaborative control of pollution reduction and carbon reduction are identified, and on this basis, according to the homology of carbon and pollution, key areas and units are identified.

From the perspective of synergistic analysis of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, the bottom-line target of atmospheric environmental quality, the upper target of energy utilization, the target of total carbon emission and intensity, and the "dual control" goal of energy consumption in the overall planning and control of zoning control, the policies and measures of relevant departments are sorted out from the perspectives of industrial layout optimization and structural transformation, upgrading of pollution control technology and production process, clean and low-carbon transformation of energy, resource recycling, and low-carbon reduction technology, etc., and a quantitative evaluation system is established, and policies and technical measures with better collaborative control effect and economy are screened, and a library of collaborative measures for pollution reduction and carbon reduction is constructed. Yantai, Nantong, Zhundong, Chongqing and other regions respectively used quantitative evaluation methods such as elasticity coefficient, normalization index, Boston matrix, and collaborative coordinates to carry out collaborative analysis of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and selected the task measures suitable for the city's collaborative control.

From the perspective of the optimization of the access list, on the basis of the existing access list, in accordance with the technical path of "identifying the synergistic characteristics of pollution and carbon reduction of key units, connecting pollution and carbon reduction measures, and optimizing the requirements of the list", combined with the opinions and suggestions of local departments, key industry associations and enterprises, the pollution and carbon reduction measures will be implemented into the ecological environment access list. For example, Zou Ping selected key industry measures with high synergy in pollution reduction and carbon reduction, such as electrolytic aluminum, steel, electric power, and coking, from the measure library, and explored the establishment of an industry-level access list.

In the future, on the basis of summarizing the experience of the first phase of the pilot, combined with local characteristics, the next stage of pilot work should be carried out by classification, and the technical path and management mode of collaborative control of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in ecological environment zoning control should be deeply explored, so as to form a replicable and generalizable experience to provide support for the formulation of relevant technical and management requirements.