Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei: Defining the Red Line for Ecological Environment

On New Year's holidays, the blue sky is hard to see in many areas in the north, and air pollution has become a “cardiopulmonary problem”.

"To say no to the fog and fog" requires coordinated operations from all parts of the country. Recently, the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development of Eco-environmental Protection Plan" ("Planning") issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Environmental Protection clearly stated that by 2020, the total discharge of major pollutants in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will be drastically reduced, and the unit's domestic production The total value of CO2 emissions has been greatly reduced, and the quality of regional eco-environment has improved significantly. The concentration of PM2.5 has decreased by about 40% from 2013.

In addition, the "plan" has set clear goals in many aspects such as water environment quality, resource consumption, and ecological space construction. In the face of severe environmental conditions and specific problems, how can the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei win the fight against environmental protection?

Bottom line delineation: Can PM2.5 decrease by 40%

"Planning" proposes that by 2017, the average annual concentration of PM2.5 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area should be controlled at about 73 micrograms/cubic meter; by 2020, the average annual concentration in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area should be controlled at about 64 micrograms/cubic meter. It dropped by about 40% in 2013.

“This is the first time China has designated a specific target line for atmospheric management,” said Zhao Penggao, deputy inspector of the Department of Central Resources, National Development and Reform Commission. After clear objectives, the reform is very difficult. Due to the complex formation of haze, its governance is a long-term process.

According to Yue Xin, a researcher at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, the main difficulty in air pollution control is that the accountability mechanism is still immature, and the next step after the establishment of targets requires the implementation of specific responsibilities. An assessment mechanism and accountability mechanism are established to form effective incentives.

For prevention and control of atmospheric pollution, the "Plan" proposes that to optimize the spatial layout of industries, Tianjin and Hebei reasonably undertake the related commerce and service industries and manufacturing functions of Beijing to ease, and the industrial transfer process is strictly limited to the construction of ecologically vulnerable or environmentally sensitive areas. "High-level industrial projects; promote industrial restructuring, formulate the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei limit, prohibition, and elimination of project categories, and update them at an appropriate time, eliminating backward production capacity and compressing excess production capacity. Improve the standards of environmental protection, energy consumption, safety, and quality, and shut down regional industrial transformation and upgrading. At the same time, it includes measures such as strict discharge standards, development of clean energy, and prevention and control of motor vehicle pollution.

Structural Adjustment: Strengthening Management from the Source

Strengthening the source management and adjusting the industrial structure are the key and difficult points for winning the battle of prevention and control of atmospheric pollution. Peng Yingdeng, an expert on urban environmental management at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, pointed out that for Beijing and Tianjin, the focus of the future is to increase the intensity of emission reductions; and since heavy industries such as steel are mainly distributed in Hebei, the industrial structure of Hebei is relatively difficult to transform, which is also forcing it to catch up. .

According to the objectives of the “Planning”, by the end of 2017, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has basically completed the relocation of heavy polluting enterprises in major urban areas at or above the prefecture level and the review of cleaner production in key industries; Beijing has focused on compressing cement production capacity and controlling the scale of oil refining; Tianjin Focus on the control of iron and steel, cement (clinker) production capacity; Hebei Province, the elimination of 100,000 kilowatts of non-cogeneration coal-fired units, cement, flat glass and so on.