Experts point out that China’s chemical industry faces serious structural risks
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Experts point out that China’s chemical industry faces serious structural risks, with a disconnect emerging between the relocation of heavy chemical industries and the safety prevention mechanisms in place. Even if each individual project meets its emission standards, due to the limitations in the environmental carrying capacity of the entire area, the concentration of many large-scale chemical industrial parks or projects still leads to a cumulative pollution effect, resulting in severe ecological disasters. Furthermore, coastal areas are often densely populated, and in the event of an accident, it can lead to significant losses of life and property. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2006, out of 7,555 chemical and petrochemical construction projects across the country, 81% were located in environmentally sensitive areas such as rivers and watersheds as well as densely populated regions, and 45% represented major sources of risk. Between 2002 and 2004 alone, 70 **chemical accidents occurred in manufacturing facilities located near urban residential areas across the country, resulting in numerous deaths, injuries, cases of poisoning, and evacuations of people. For example, on April 16, 2004, an accident occurred at the Chongqing Tianyuan Chemical Plant involving chlorine tanks, which forced 150,000 residents living near the site of the accident in Jiangbei District, Chongqing, to be evacuated urgently, causing serious disruptions to the normal order of the city and the lives of its residents. Many experts believe that a major reason for the heavy burden of heavy and chemical industries on coastal areas is that coastal development is primarily carried out at the local level. For these localities, heavy and chemical industry projects not only represent significant sources of investment and output but also help to foster the clustering and development of industrial activities in the surrounding areas. Therefore, heavy and chemical industries have become the driving force behind coastal provinces and cities to gain an advantage in the new round of regional competition. Gu Limei from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University once wrote that this reflects the extreme importance of GDP in local **performance evaluations. At the local level, **GDP still remains the guiding principle; driven by GDP growth, many provinces and cities compete to launch chemical and petrochemical projects. More importantly, Gu Limei believes that the situation of being \"encircled by the chemical industry\" arises from the \"short-sightedness\" in planning; planning fails to keep up with urbanization, always lagging behind its development, and fails to grasp the trends in social development. Furthermore, many areas lack the necessary buffer zones, resulting in chemical plants being located next to residential areas and the main urban centers.
Various interests have driven the development of large-scale chemical industries; some of these efforts were successful while others failed, and in some cases the damage to the environment was severe, leading to the emergence of so-called \"cancer villages\"
But according to experts, it is mainly the multiplier effect of risks: one problem is easy to solve, but a bunch of problems become difficult to handle, and they influence each other, increasing the overall impact
The development of chemical plants is certainly driven by societal demand; without such demand, there would be no substantial investment in building such facilities. Chemical products are not luxury items like shark fins or ivory – they are essential. Since they are necessary, they must be produced. And production inevitably leads to pollution. The main problem at present is that companies do not pay enough attention to pollution, allocate little funding to environmental protection, or their manufacturing processes inherently result in pollution. It seems that this pollution can only be reduced, not eliminated. Opening windows for ventilation brings cool air, but it also attracts mosquitoes
Nothing happens before an accident, but once it occurs, there’s talk of it everywhere. . .
In fact, many people in the industry must already feel this sense of crisis
It still relies on technological progress, personnel competence, **regulation, and improved equipment.
Another thing: increase the coefficient; avoid critical design
Yes, due to the complexity of the projects in each industrial park, irreversible damage has been caused to certain aspects of the park’s environment. In recent years, many people have been calling for a return to clean skies, and they truly hope that leaders at all levels will weigh the pros and cons carefully!
Local authorities seek achievements, while business owners aim to maximize profits. Environmental supervision is difficult to implement due to the intersection of various interest networks.
There are too many refining and chemical projects invested in and built locally.