Record | Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu Answers Journalist's Questions at the "Ministerial Channel" of the Two Sessions

On March 8th, the second session of the Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress, the "Ministerial Passage," was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu stepped onto the ministerial channel and answered questions from media reporters.

Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine reporter: In recent years, the effectiveness of improving ecological environment quality has been evident to all. People can clearly feel that the environment around them is improving. However, last year, many places still experienced heavy pollution weather. May I ask Minister Huang how he views the progress and effectiveness of ecological environment protection in 2023? What are your considerations and arrangements for this year's work? Thank you.

Huang Runqiu: Thank you to this journalist friend for his question. Looking at the sky outside today, it's blue and blue with PM2.5 in the single digits. To be honest, standing in this place has also relaxed my mood a lot. Premier Li Qiang affirmed the achievements made in the field of ecological civilization construction over the past year in his government work report, stating that the stable improvement of ecological environment quality has not been easy won. The past year 2023 has been a very complex year for ecological and environmental protection work, and we have encountered many difficulties and challenges. Taking atmospheric environment governance as an example, firstly, after the transition of the epidemic, there has been a significant rebound in the overall social and economic activities, and the emissions of pollutants in some areas have significantly increased. This has put great pressure on us to stabilize the quality of the atmospheric environment. In addition, last year's meteorological conditions were extremely unfavorable. In 2023, our country's meteorological conditions entered a new El Ni ñ o cycle. Its typical feature is that as the average temperature rises, the periodic alternation of warm and cold becomes more frequent and intense, which has a serious impact on improving the quality of the atmospheric environment. For example, in the first half of the year, our country was affected by strong cold air from the northwest and Mongolia, resulting in 17 large-scale heavy sand and dust weather processes, the most in nearly a decade. This alone caused a loss of 3.3 percentage points in our excellent days, which is not a small number. For example, a heavy pollution weather process caused by unfavorable meteorological conditions such as high temperature, humidity, and static stability at the end of the year raised the national average PM2.5 by 1.1 micrograms per cubic meter.

So in the face of such a severe situation, we have taken a series of effective measures together with relevant departments to mitigate and hedge against such adverse effects. For example, we have accelerated the process of ultra-low emission transformation in key industries. Last year, the steel industry in China completed 220 million tons of ultra-low emission transformation, exceeding the total of the previous three years; We have completed the clean heating renovation of 2 million rural households in the northern region, effectively reducing the use of loose coal. We have also fully implemented the emission standards for light vehicles in the 6B phase domestically. In addition, we have increased our supervision and assistance efforts, urging local governments to rectify 87000 environmental issues related to gas. These measures have had a good effect, reversing the passive situation and promoting stable improvement of environmental quality.

Taking atmospheric environmental quality as an example, last year the average concentration of PM2.5 in cities at or above the prefecture level in China was 30 micrograms per cubic meter, maintaining a stable and positive overall trend. Compared to the three-year average during the epidemic period when the overall level of emissions in society is relatively low, we have also decreased by 1 microgram/cubic meter; Compared to the annual target for 2023, we have improved by 3 micrograms per cubic meter; Compared to 2019 before the epidemic, the improvement was even greater, with PM2.5 decreasing by 6 micrograms/cubic meter within four years, an improvement of 16.7%. This is the quality of the atmospheric environment. The water environment quality is even more pleasing. Last year, the proportion of high-quality surface water sections in China reached 89.4%, which is 4.4 percentage points higher than the target of the 14th Five Year Plan; Our mother river, the water quality of the Yangtze River and the main stream of the Yellow River, has remained stable at Class II in recent years. There is still a lot of data, so I won't list them one by one. In short, after an extraordinary year of 2023, our great motherland has become even more beautiful.

Looking ahead to 2024, the government work report proposes the continuous improvement of ecological environment quality. We will resolutely implement the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, take the construction of a beautiful China as the leadership, coordinate the promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, deepen the supervision of central ecological environment protection, and support high-quality development with high-level protection. Our focus is on the following areas of work:

Firstly, we must continue to deepen the battle against pollution prevention and control, and fight several beautiful landmark battles with higher standards. We are considering achieving some landmark results in areas such as air quality improvement, water environment improvement, water ecological restoration, rural environmental remediation, and risk management of hazardous waste, laying a solid foundation for the construction of a beautiful China.

Secondly, we need to focus on major regional strategies to promote the construction of a beautiful China pilot zone, and promote the construction of beautiful provinces, cities, villages, bays, and rivers and lakes at different levels.

Thirdly, we must vigorously promote green, low-carbon, and high-quality development, focusing on achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and using pollution reduction and carbon reduction as the starting point to promote the optimization and adjustment of our industrial structure, energy structure, and transportation structure. Accelerate the control of ecological environment zoning, further implement and build a national carbon emission market, especially the recently launched voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market, to provide support for our green transformation.

Finally, we will further increase our supervision of ecosystem protection and restoration, focusing on enhancing the sustainability, diversity, and stability of our country's ecosystem.

Thank you all.

Chengdu Business Daily Red Star News reporter: Hello Minister Huang. In recent years, the media has reported on multiple cases of third-party environmental protection service agencies engaging in fraud. Last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment also adopted the "four no's and two direct" approach to conduct inspections in local areas, promoting the special rectification of third-party environmental protection service agencies engaging in fraud. What is the effect of the rectification? What other work arrangements are there this year? Thank you.

Huang Runqiu: Thank you to this reporter from Chengdu Business Daily. I have lived and worked in Chengdu for over 30 years, and I am very emotional. Environmental impact assessment and environmental monitoring are fundamental systems in the field of ecological and environmental protection, and they are very important. However, in recent years, various regions have also exposed the behavior of third-party environmental protection service agencies falsifying data during the preparation of environmental impact assessment documents and the self monitoring process of enterprises. The methods of falsification are diverse and varied, such as fabricating data during the preparation of environmental impact assessment documents, impersonating someone else's signature, replacing monitoring samples, interfering with sampling probes, fabricating false reports and false accounts, tampering with instrument parameters, and even using hacker programs to invade public computer systems to modify monitoring data. The nature of falsification is extremely bad, and the trend of falsification is still developing towards specialization and chain direction. These illegal behaviors have disrupted a fair market order, greatly damaged the credibility of the government and the environmental rights and interests of the people, and also impacted our bottom line. We cannot tolerate these behaviors, we must resolutely crack down on them, and we must eradicate the soil where they breed.

Since the 14th Five Year Plan period, we have worked together 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 for four consecutive years against the problem of third-party environmental protection service agencies engaging in fraud. We use the "four no's and two's" inspection, as you mentioned earlier, effective measures such as supervision and assistance, big data supervision, and even central ecological and environmental protection inspections to crack down on the fraudulent behavior of third-party environmental protection service agencies have achieved good results. There are several aspects overall:

Firstly, we have investigated and dealt with a batch of typical cases, forming an effective deterrent. In the past three years, we have investigated and dealt with 2260 third-party environmental protection service agencies with illegal activities, transferred 193 cases to relevant departments for criminal filing, and publicly exposed 457 typical cases. In addition, we have investigated and dealt with 4255 cases of companies falsifying environmental self monitoring, and transferred 930 suspected cases of illegal activities to relevant departments. These cases include the environmental impact assessment fraud case of Shandong Jinhua Company, which had a significant impact on society last year, the environmental impact assessment fraud case of Jiangxi Zhanhang Company, and the motor vehicle inspection fraud case of Guangdong Guanghe Company. These cases have all been sentenced and have produced good social effects, playing a deterrent and warning role.

Secondly, we have promoted the connection of execution and improved the efficiency of regulatory law enforcement. We have worked together with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security to establish a joint law enforcement mechanism that connects execution and promotes integration. We have formed a "combination fist" of joint consultation, joint listing and supervision, joint disclosure of typical cases, and joint deployment of related work, effectively improving our regulatory enforcement efficiency. For example, in the Shandong Jinhua Company fraud case that I mentioned earlier, the environmental impact assessment company used affiliation and forging signatures of others to act as the creators of false environmental impact assessment documents. Over the years, 48 false environmental impact reports and 879 environmental impact report forms have been forged, with a huge number and poor quality. In the past, there were "three difficulties" in the investigation and handling of such cases, namely, difficulty in filing the case, difficulty in obtaining evidence, and difficulty in determining the nature of the case. We effectively solved these "three difficulties" through this mechanism and local coordination. At present, the four individuals involved in this case have been criminally punished, which can be said to be the first case where the environmental impact assessment system was established and sentenced for fraud.

Thirdly, the legal system has been further improved. The Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Procuratorate have issued judicial interpretations on "two highs", clarifying the conviction and sentencing standards for third-party environmental service agencies providing false certification documents in the process of environmental impact assessment, environmental monitoring, and carbon emission inspection and testing. Recently, the State Council has issued the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Carbon Emission Rights Trading", which severely punish the falsification of carbon emission data, punishing both institutions and responsible persons, and revoking their professional qualifications for serious cases. These systems undoubtedly enhance our regulatory capabilities towards third-party environmental service agencies.

Next, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with relevant departments, will continue to carry out special rectification actions to maintain a high-pressure situation in cracking down on third-party environmental protection service agencies for falsifying and illegal activities. At the same time, we will further strengthen the "penetrating" supervision of big data and artificial intelligence, and use the power of technology to build a strong defense against fraud. Finally, we also welcome news media and journalists present today to leverage their advantages in public opinion supervision and work together with us to promote the healthy and orderly development of the third-party environmental protection service market.

Thank you all.

Original title: Record | Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu Answers Journalist's Questions at the "Ministerial Channel" of the Two Sessions

Article link: Environmental Protection Online https://www.hbzhan.com/news/detail/174002.html