Capital campaigns to curb pollution, spur sustainability
Policy rolled out to improve environment and green development
Beijing is launching an environmental campaign to reduce air, water and soil pollution and seek sustainable growth, local officials said.
The city government rolled out a new policy in mid-July to control pollution and improve the local environment.
In 2020, the capital’s forest coverage is projected to increase to more than 44 percent, from its current 43 percent, according to the policy.
To advance Beijing’s transfer to green development, local officials said they will complete a thorough investigation into polluting businesses across the entire city at the end of August.
An estimated 1,000 companies, including low-value manufacturers and the businesses that fail to meet the environmental standards, will be moved out of Beijing by the end of 2020. At that time, the total emissions of major pollutants in the city’s industrial clusters is projected to fall by approximately 20 percent from that of 2017, according to the policy.
These measures will help the city achieve its environmental goals for 2020, including a more than 17 percent reduction in energy consumption per 10,000 yuan ($1,450) of GDP and a 20.5 percent fall in carbon dioxide emission, compared with 2015, the government said.
While polluting businesses are being scaled down, ecofriendly high-tech industries are embracing brisk growth in the city, with more government support.
Data from the Beijing Bureau of Statistics shows that the value added of the city’s strategic emerging industries — including energy-efficient and environmentally friendly sectors — reported a 17.1 percent increase year-on-year from January to June.
Growth in the value added of the city’s high-tech industry stood at 15.1 percent during the same period, according to the bureau.
The construction of an ecological civilization is closely related to local residents’ wellbeing, and Beijing’s quality and image, Cai Qi, Party chief of the city, said at a meeting in Beijing on July 13.
He called for more efforts to be focused on pollution control in automobile manufacturing, industries that produce heavy dust and volatile organic compounds.
Echoing Cai’s views on ecological civilization, Beijing Mayor Chen Jining requested enhanced enforcement and an innovated system to create a stronger force for environmental protection.
Enforcement officials conducted more than 1,800 investigations into pollutants at plants, auto repair and maintenance service providers, and restaurants in the first half of this year.
The businesses that failed to meet the environmental standards were fined a total of 106 million yuan, according to the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
Chen encouraged the broad participation of multiple stake holders in the environmental campaign and encouraged continued promotion of ecological civilization.
In an action plan to promote Beijing’s opening-up and reform, which the city government released at the end of July, pollution control was listed as a focus, underscoring local authorities’ determination to address the environmental issue.
According to the plan, Beijing will create a diverse compensation mechanism for ecosystem protection in 2022, in a bid to promote green production and an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Beijing began an environmental compensation program designed for collectivelyowned forest farms in mountainous areas in 2004.
The city spent roughly 11.6 billion yuan on eco-compensation in 2017, including 369 million yuan from the central government and nearly 8.38 billion from the municipality, Beijing Business Today newspaper quoted an official at the Beijing Commission of Development and Reform as saying.