The Ministry of Environmental Protection will raise emission standards to force uncompliant companies to close down
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The Ministry of Environmental Protection will raise emission standards to force uncompliant companies to close down. 10 hours ago, Xinhua News Agency. Original title: Ministry of Environmental Protection will raise emission standards to force uncompliant companies to close down. □ By our reporter Qie Jianrong. Chen Jining, Minister of Environmental Protection, said during a face-to-face meeting with the media on January 6 that the biggest challenge in addressing air pollution lies in winter. This winter is one of the warmer winters in recent decades, but \"we shouldn’t expect it to turn from a warm winter to a cold one next year.\" Chen Jining revealed that the Ministry of Environmental Protection is working overtime to develop more effective measures to address air pollution issues in winter more effectively; these measures are aimed at addressing the weaknesses in the existing strategies for dealing with air pollution during winter. Air pollution mainly falls into two categories: one is key pollution sources, and the other is \"small and scattered\" pollution sources. Chen Jining said that there are 1,239 high-altitude pollution sources in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region that are over 45 meters tall, and these represent key pollution sources. Automatic monitoring has now been fully implemented, and it is connected to the environmental protection authorities. He said that the Ministry of Environmental Protection publishes a list of enterprises that fail to meet the standards on a quarterly basis, while also imposing stricter penalties on them. “Although these small and scattered polluting enterprises are not considered key enterprises, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will carry out special campaigns to eliminate such enterprises in certain key areas, as there is no online monitoring in place. The overly heavy industrial and energy structures are the root causes of air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. In response to this, Chen Jining proposed that significant adjustments to both the industrial and energy structures are necessary. First, the issue of winter heating needs to be resolved. Winter heating results in an increase of around 30% in pollutant emissions. Meanwhile, the level of cogeneration in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is low, and the urban heating infrastructure is inadequate; currently only about 50% of areas have cogeneration systems in place, with heating mainly relying on coal-fired boilers. To address these issues, it is necessary to step up efforts to phase out coal-fired boilers. \"The goal is for all counties with a population of over 200,000 to implement combined heat and power generation, and by the end of this year, all coal-fired boilers with a capacity of less than 10 steam tons in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region should be eliminated.\" ”Chen Jining said that at the same time, efforts will also be accelerated to address the issue of scattered coal use in urban villages, areas where urban and rural areas meet, and rural regions. By the end of October this year, Beijing, Tianjin, Baoding, and Langfang will become coal-free areas; at the same time, efforts will be made to accelerate the transition from coal to electricity and from coal to gas in cities such as Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Taiyuan, and Zhengzhou. According to him, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will raise industry emission standards in order to force adjustments in the industrial structure; by raising these standards, companies that fail to meet them will be forced to close down in their respective regions. ”The Ministry of Environmental Protection is currently working on formulating new emission standards for steel plants and chemical factories in order to strengthen control over unorganized emissions. The Ministry of Environmental Protection will also accelerate the installation of online monitoring systems for motor vehicles, strengthen oversight of vehicles that cause severe pollution, and gradually introduce new vehicle emission standards. Regarding the issue of inadequate implementation of the early-warning plans for severe air pollution, Chen Jining said, \"Regarding the reduction targets specified in red alerts and the amount of production that needs to be halted, these have not been properly implemented in some places.\" ”He suggested, \"For some cities where temperatures have remained extremely high for a long time, we indeed need to take more effective measures.\" ”Chen Jining revealed that the Ministry of Environmental Protection is currently evaluating the emergency response plans for the “2+18” cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region one by one. It is hoped that this round of assessment will enhance the ability of these cities to cope with severe air pollution, improving both the relevance and effectiveness of their measures. According to Chen Jining, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is developing a big data platform for environmental supervision and law enforcement, with pilot projects being carried out in six provinces (regions and municipalities) namely Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan. “A national law enforcement platform should be established, with every frontline law enforcement officer being connected to this platform in real time. Information on which companies have been inspected, whether an inspection was carried out, and the details of such inspections are recorded online in real time, thereby enabling accountability for each individual and helping to standardize law enforcement practices. ”Chen Jining said that the Ministry of Environmental Protection needs to make significant efforts in terms of personnel capabilities, institutional mechanisms, and equipment in order to improve law enforcement capabilities at the grassroots level. Beijing, January 8, Report of Our Newspaper
A distinction should indeed be made; measures must be taken to address fog pollution, and both those that meet the standards and those that do not should be shut down. This is clearly unfair to companies that comply with the regulations. It should be the companies that fail to meet the standards that are shut down, while those that achieve compliant emissions should be allowed to operate and even rewarded for it. By creating such a difference, companies will be motivated to take action to improve their environmental performance; otherwise, there will be no incentive for them to focus on environmental protection
:Lol it seems the environmental protection industry is about to boom
The wishes are good; it remains to be seen whether they can be realized. The weather this winter has not been pleasant for anyone
The environmental protection industry has existed for a long time; it’s just that most companies either fail to use desulfurization and denitrification technologies or prevent them from functioning
To figure out exactly how fog is formed, it’s necessary to address the root cause.
The problem is that those small businesses are all protected by local interests; there’s a local private enterprise right next to us, and its chimney emits smoke quite visibly, yet no one does anything about it
Regulate corporate behavior; don’t wait until facts have already been established. The legal procedures for non-compliant enterprises are also approved through **review – why wasn’t strict control applied at that time? It operates without equal standards, causes pollution, and then shuts down.
That’s the case with many things: when signs of harm first appear, people fail to be vigilant； When the harm became increasingly severe, the forethoughtful ones began to call for action, but more people ignored them in pursuit of immediate gains ； It is only when it threatens themselves that more people become alert, and only then do they think of imposing strict controls. Therefore, the prospects for improving environmental management are bright; past instances of capitalism serve as examples of very poor outcomes. We will be much better than in previous examples; firstly, technology has advanced, although we still have shortcomings ； After all, the lessons from past incidents hold some guiding value.
The key is whether strict supervision and enforcement are possible.