Environmental precision avoids a one size fits all approach

As the northern region enters the heating season, air pollution prevention and control are once again facing challenges. How to implement scientific policies and precise governance, win the battle to defend the blue sky with practical actions, is related to the stable and healthy operation of the economy, as well as the well-being of the people.

Not long ago, Hebei Province took the lead in establishing a positive list system for ecological environment supervision nationwide, which has attracted attention. This system prioritizes the production and operation activities of enterprises and projects included in the list, and ensures "no production stoppage, no production restriction, no inspection, and no disturbance" during the emergency emission reduction period of heavy pollution weather; The key to being included in the positive list lies in whether it can achieve standard emissions, self-discipline in emission reduction, and leading pollution control levels. At present, after on-site verification and evaluation, as well as review by multiple departments and chambers of commerce, a total of 1640 projects and enterprises in Hebei have been included in the first batch of positive lists for ecological environment supervision.

The establishment of relevant systems is an innovative measure to eliminate the "one size fits all" environmental protection and accurately control air pollution. In reality, some places or departments usually fail to take action or responsibility, and when it comes to the central ecological environment protection inspection, strengthened supervision, and year-end assessment, they resort to hasty and crude measures such as indiscriminately demanding work stoppages and shutdowns. The indiscriminate "one size fits all" approach that has appeared in a few places has harmed the rights and interests of legitimate and compliant enterprises, and also reflects the existing formalism and bureaucratic style. Nowadays, Hebei and other regions have formulated and implemented strict policies and measures to prohibit the "one size fits all" approach to environmental protection. Through the positive list system of ecological environment supervision and differentiated emergency emission reduction measures such as "one enterprise, one policy", various enterprises are classified and targeted, and "promoting good and punishing evil" are implemented to promote the transformation of environmental management models from "bottom line constraints" to "bottom line constraints" and "advanced driving", which is conducive to better promoting high-quality economic development and winning the battle to defend the blue sky.

There are no backward industries, only backward production models. Due to differences in emphasis, management level, and pollution control capabilities, the level and effectiveness of pollution control may vary greatly among different enterprises in the same industry. In environmental regulation, if the encouragement of advanced, rewarding good and punishing bad, and differential treatment cannot be effectively reflected, it is easy to lead to "low cost of violating the law and high cost of abiding by the law". For example, during the emergency emission reduction period of heavy pollution weather, advanced enterprises that invest heavily in installing and operating pollution control facilities must also "stop first" like backward scattered pollution enterprises, which will make strict law-abiding people pay high costs and thus affect the efficiency and pollution control enthusiasm of advanced enterprises. The implementation of measures such as the positive list system for ecological environment supervision, which clearly distinguishes between runners and laggards, will help strengthen differentiated control of the ecological environment and stimulate the endogenous motivation of enterprises to control pollution and reduce emissions.

It is worth noting that providing policy incentives and strong support to advanced enterprises does not mean relaxing regulation on these leaders. In practice, we should make full use of video surveillance, automatic monitoring of pollution sources, unmanned aerial vehicle flight inspection and other means to improve the non site monitoring system. At the same time, we adhere to high standards and strict requirements, strictly follow the rules to publicly and fairly determine the "red list", and dynamically adjust and regularly update it. In short, it is necessary to provide high-quality services for enterprises while not relaxing the "red line" of environmental protection.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China explicitly proposed to "adhere to and improve the ecological civilization system, and promote harmonious coexistence between humans and nature". In recent years, China has continuously promoted the battle against pollution prevention and control, achieving significant results, but there is still a long way to go. By focusing on problem orientation, adhering to the principle of starting from reality, and paying more attention to precise policy implementation, we can cure chronic diseases with good medicine, increase the number of blue skies and white clouds, and continuously enhance the sense of gain, happiness, and security of the masses.