“\"Card-based pollution discharge\" and \"pollution rights trading\": from left to right

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This post was last edited by Zhixuan Chemistry on 2016-12-15 at 15:17. [Pilot programs for card-based pollution discharge control, pilot programs for pollution trading; in the end, it is still the sudden wave of shutdowns that solves the problem. Is this really normal?] 】 【Background】Titanium dioxide factories have been shut down due to environmental regulations, as have paint factories, and so do furniture and bathroom product manufacturers. I won’t go into detail regarding the specific figures. In any case, recently I’ve seen various kinds of complaints about the entire paint industry chain in social media circles – some polite, and some not. I understand; if someone takes my job, I’d want to go at them too. I’ve felt that these past two days I’ve read and written too many articles related to environmental protection and pollution, and seen too many accounts of suffering and grievances. It wasn’t until yesterday, during dinner, that I watched a special report on CCTV’s Focus Interview titled \"Facing Challenges to Increase Production Capacity,\" which discussed the trading of production capacity quotas among steel companies. This reminded me of the trading of pollution emission quotas, which has been in pilot use for a decade now, as well as the more \"high-tech\" system of using cards to track pollution emissions. Card-based pollution discharge: In 2014, Zhejiang Province piloted the use of cards for pollution discharge control, with Hangzhou taking the lead in implementing this system. The card-based pollution discharge system will monitor in real time the concentration and total amount of pollutants discharged by enterprises. It enables real-time monitoring of parameters such as wastewater/air emissions, SO2 (sulfur dioxide), COD (chemical oxygen demand), NH3-N (ammonia nitrogen), valve control, and operational status. On the operation interface, it is also possible to find the company’s real-time wastewater discharge data, monthly discharge figures, and annual discharge data, among other things. The total amount controller is connected directly to the enterprise’s pollution discharge valves; for the enterprise to discharge pollutants, it is necessary to \"top up\" the allowed discharge volume using an IC card issued by the environmental protection authorities. The total amount of top-ups for each enterprise is allocated and determined by the environmental protection department, made public, and then allocated monthly to the pollution discharge IC card. Companies can also allocate their monthly emissions in advance, based on the off-peak and peak seasons of their industry, in order to achieve overall emission control. In addition, the controller is also equipped with a warning function. Once 80% of the monthly emission quota is used up, the system will issue a warning and notify the company via text message or phone call to adjust its production ； If 90% of the pollution discharge limit is used up, a red alert will be issued, and the environmental protection authorities will send a written warning to the enterprise ； When a company’s emission quota is exhausted, the management platform automatically shuts off the valves at the pollution source outlets to prevent the company from emitting beyond its allowed limit. Back then, the definition of pollution control through card-based systems was to regulate both the total amount of pollutants emitted and their concentration, thereby shifting environmental supervision from a passive to an active approach. This approach forced enterprises to reduce their emissions and improve their efficiency, to eliminate outdated production methods, and to adopt more refined management practices. It encouraged enterprises to shift from focusing on quantity growth to focusing on efficiency growth, and from extensive to intensive forms of operation, so as to maximize economic and social benefits using limited environmental resources. ” The embarrassment of using a card to discharge waste – still ending up with smoke afterwards. Environmental regulations stipulate that no enterprise may carry out production activities if it fails to meet environmental standards, and card-based monitoring cannot ensure the immediate shutdown of pollution-emitting processes. Post-event fines have no remedial effect even on environmental protection. Spending money to buy incremental metrics. By paying money to top up, you are purchasing additional emission allowances; the more money you spend, the more emissions allowance units you will have in your account, while less money spent means fewer emission allowance units. It’s impossible to scientifically determine how much it should be sold for, or how much can actually be sold ； Small factories with irregular environmental management but high profits can afford to spend large amounts of money to purchase more pollution allowances, while large factories with proper environmental management but low profits can spend less to acquire fewer such allowances; this clearly fails to ensure adequate regulation in terms of environmental protection. What is charged are pollution indicators, while what is sold is the public’s right to health. No blood-stained GDP, and no artificially inflated pollution indicators either. If pollution can be bought with money, then why would anyone invest in building extensive environmental protection systems? The pilot program for emission rights trading, which has been in operation for ten years, saw the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the National Development and Reform Commission approve the implementation of such a pilot program in 11 regions: Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Hebei, and Henan, starting in 2007. By the end of 2013, the total amount generated from the paid use and trading of emission rights in the 11 pilot provinces amounted to nearly 4 billion. Of this, around 2 billion is allocated for paid use, and the transaction value is also close to 2 billion. The awkwardness of emission rights trading: Chang Jiwen, deputy director of the Institute for Resources and Environmental Policy at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said at the \"2016 China Water Affairs Summit\" that emission rights trading in the pilot provinces is not active; sometimes there is no interest in it at all, and many transactions only take place with the intervention of environmental protection authorities. The investigation found that the boundaries and conditions for the pilot programs on the paid use and trading of emission rights are unclear, which hinders the advancement of the policy. Firstly, the types of pollutants to which the policies apply are not uniform; secondly, the scope of application of these policies is not consistent. Thirdly, the boundary conditions for determining transaction prices are unclear. Fourthly, the pollutants and conditions related to the trading of emission rights are not defined clearly. Card-based pollution discharge or emission rights trading? Zhixuan Chemistry believes that, given the current situation, card-based pollution discharge control and pollution rights trading play a complementary role in controlling the overall level of environmental pollution. However, it is necessary to clarify the sequence or hierarchy between the two. Emission trading is the main approach, while card-based emission control or compensatory emission methods can serve as key tools for controlling the total amount of pollution. In essence, emissions trading is a crucial driver for the upgrading of industrial clusters, encouraging enterprises within such sectors to engage in cooperation among themselves through activities such as mergers and reorganizations, all starting from the trading of emission rights. More high-quality resource integration solutions in the industry will also gradually emerge. In addition, cross-industry transactions and transactions among sources with similar emission profiles should also be promoted, through various measures to increase the activity of such transactions. Carrying out sudden shutdowns under the pretext of environmental protection is not conducive to industrial consolidation during an economic downturn. A poem: \"Qinyuan Chun • Environmental Protection Brings Me Joy\" – Titanium dioxide factories shut down, paint factories cease operations, and furniture factories go bankrupt. Looking at the industry chain, it’s in complete chaos ； Outside the industrial chain, PM2.5 levels are above the standard. Going green as a strategy, with production capacity reaching thousands, aiming to rival enterprises. Drones offer a stunning view of the scenes inside the factory. 2016 was so charming, bending over to affordable raw materials. Cherish energy conservation and emission reduction to minimize our household’s impact ； It’s not easy to get any kind of subsidies. The last sentence. . . Let’s use our imagination~