Interview with Tian Chunxiu, Political Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: The synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction is an inevitable choice and effective path to achieve the goal of building a beautiful China

Recently, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a Beautiful China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") was released, which put forward specific opinions for comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China and accelerating the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The "Opinions" emphasize "coordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth", and "carry out multi-field and multi-level collaborative innovation pilots for pollution reduction and carbon reduction" as one of the key tasks to promote the construction of a beautiful China. So, why does the construction of a beautiful China include "carrying out multi-field, multi-level and multi-level collaborative innovation pilots for pollution reduction and carbon reduction" as a key task? What is the deep connection between this and the construction of a beautiful China? What are the typical experiences, practices, and cases in the localities that are worth learning from? How should the results be evaluated? How should the next step be carried out in various localities? Focusing on these issues, this reporter has an exclusive interviewpracticeNear-flatTian Chunxiu, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Ecological Civilization Thought and Deputy Director of the Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Tian Chunxiu, deputy director of the Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, is a second-level researcher and an expert who has received special government allowances from the State Council. He is the chairman of the Green Trade and Investment Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences, and the vice chairman of the Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences. He is mainly engaged in environmental policy research and related research in the field of climate change. The "Policy and Technology Demonstration Research on Coordinated Control of Air Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases" presided over was awarded the second prize of the 2022 Environmental Protection Science and Technology Award.

China Environment News:In your opinion, why does the construction of a beautiful China include "carrying out multi-field and multi-level collaborative innovation pilots for pollution reduction and carbon reduction" as a key task, and how is this deeply related to the construction of a beautiful China?

Tian Chunxiu:The "Opinions" clearly put forward the target path, key tasks and major policies for the construction of a beautiful China by 2027, 2035 and the middle of the 21st century, emphasizing "coordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth", and "carrying out multi-field and multi-level collaborative innovation pilot projects for pollution reduction and carbon reduction" as one of the key tasks to promote the construction of a beautiful China. This means that promoting the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction is an inevitable choice and an effective way to achieve the goal of building a beautiful China. In my opinion, the relationship between it and the construction of a beautiful China can be explained from three aspects.

First of all, it is an important measure to implement the decision-making and deployment of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. In June 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and seven other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Synergy in Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction", as an important part of China's "1+N" policy system for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and made systematic arrangements for promoting synergy in pollution reduction and carbon reduction. In July 2023, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued and implemented the Pilot Work Plan for Collaborative Innovation in Pollution and Carbon Reduction in Cities and Industrial Parks, and released the first batch of pilot projects for collaborative innovation in pollution and carbon reduction in cities and industrial parks in December. Promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and lay a solid foundation for achieving the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality by forcing the transformation and upgrading of the energy structure, industrial structure, and transportation structure.

Secondly, it is a key support for improving the efficiency of comprehensive ecological environment management. In the new stage of development, ecological environmental protection must shift from single-objective to multi-objective management, the idea must change from end-of-line treatment to emphasizing source management, and the management elements should emphasize environmental elements such as air, water, soil, and solid waste, as well as the coordinated management of ecological construction and greenhouse gas emission reduction. Promoting the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction is conducive to scientifically grasping the integrity of ecological environmental protection and climate change response, integrated planning, integrated deployment, integrated promotion, and integrated assessment, and promoting ecological and environmental governance from point to area, from surface to inside, and promoting carbon emissions to stabilize and decline after peaking with the minimum cost and highest efficiency, and the ecological environment will fundamentally improve.

In addition, it is also a practical requirement for improving the guarantee system for the construction of a beautiful China. On the one hand, promoting the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction will help enhance the synergy between ecological and environmental policies and economic and industrial policies, better play the role of ecological environmental protection in the macroeconomic governance system, and maximize the realization of economic, social, ecological and climate benefits. On the other hand, it will help local governments to work the promotion of innovation in combination with reality, insist on exploring while working, summarizing and improving, summarize and promote a number of typical experiences and models with good effects and replication, and timely raise the beneficial practices and practical experience of collaborative innovation in pollution reduction and carbon reduction to the institutional level, so as to further provide a solid institutional guarantee for comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China.

China Environment News:At this stage, focusing on the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction to promote the construction of a beautiful China, what are the advanced experiences that can be used for reference and reference across the country?

Tian Chunxiu:So far, 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have issued synergistic work plans for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and many places have included pollution and carbon reduction requirements in the 14th Five-Year Plan. Focusing on accelerating the construction of an institutional mechanism for integrated planning, deployment, promotion and assessment of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, a number of typical experience practices and cases have emerged, which I summarize into three levels: provincial, municipal, and park.

At the provincial level, Zhejiang Province launched the construction of the country's first collaborative innovation zone for pollution reduction and carbon reduction in 2022, and promoted the path of collaborative governance by strengthening departmental collaboration, releasing synergy indexes, implementing multiple incentives, and promoting digital intelligent governance. Chongqing has actively promoted climate investment and financing pilots, promoted the coordinated management of pollutant discharge permits and carbon emissions, included carbon emissions in environmental impact assessments, included carbon emissions in environmental statistics, compiled an integrated inventory of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, and built a "carbon pollution intelligent governance" management system.

At the municipal level, Hangzhou has created the first Asian Games for Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction, and issued the first implementation guidelines for "zero-waste events". Nanyang City has formed an "inner countryside model" for the prevention and control of livestock and poultry pollution among farmers below designated size, and created a "green and low-carbon model of animal husbandry" integrating "breeding, biogas fertilizer, and green agriculture". Luoyang City promotes the development of the hydrogen energy industry chain and promotes the popularization of the application of green energy transportation vehicles such as hydrogen energy heavy trucks and hydrogen energy forklifts. Based on the advantages of coal power resources, Huainan City has deeply explored the potential of coal power and explored the synergistic path of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the whole industrial chain of coal, electricity, chemical and gas. Tongnan District of Chongqing Municipality promotes the centralized treatment of electroplating wastewater in the park, improves the reuse rate of reclaimed water, explores zero discharge of heavy metal wastewater, and implements intelligent management of material consumption and energy consumption systems.

At the park level, Hefei High-tech Zone focuses on "carbon reduction to drive pollution reduction and develop a low-carbon new quality economy", innovates the collaborative management system of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, takes the lead in implementing industrial carbon credit pilots, innovates and implements green financial products such as carbon credit loans and loans per mu, rewards the leaders of collaborative innovation in pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and promotes the collaborative innovation of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the free trade zone. Xiangyang High-tech Zone innovatively proposes to combine the supervision and assistance system with cleaner production audits, and promote the coordinated development of pollution reduction and carbon reduction with cleaner production audits. Chongqing Xipeng Industrial Park actively promotes the collaborative innovation of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the aluminum industry, and promotes the formation of a closed-loop industrial chain covering upstream electrolytic aluminum, mid-end aluminum profile supply, downstream deep processing, and end-of-line recycling.

China Environment News:The "Opinions" put forward that it is necessary to carry out the monitoring and evaluation of Beautiful China and the evaluation of the construction process of Beautiful China. With the acceleration of the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in various places, how to retain this "beauty", how to evaluate its effectiveness, and what are the criteria?

Tian Chunxiu:The "Opinions" clarify that seven key areas constitute the Beautiful China Roadmap, and the "Beautiful Series" is the main starting point for promoting the construction of Beautiful China at this stage. Whether it is the construction of beautiful cities and beautiful villages, or the construction of "beautiful cells" with parks, enterprises, communities and other grassroots units, the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction is one of the important elements. At the same time, it is one of the important tasks to formulate a practical evaluation method for the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, which has a very urgent practical need.

However, at present, the state has not issued guidance on the evaluation of the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and most places feel at a loss except for a few places that are exploring and promoting. From the perspective of local promotion, only Zhejiang Province has formulated and implemented relevant evaluation methods. For example, cities such as Jiaxing and Huzhou have released a synergistic index for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, which can be quantitatively tracked, evaluated and feedback, and Yuhang District of Hangzhou has released a synergistic enterprise index for pollution reduction and carbon reduction. At the same time, some scholars and consulting institutions have also carried out relevant research. For example, the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences and other units jointly issued the group standard "Evaluation Index System for Synergy in Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction in Industrial Parks".

The Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has also carried out a number of studies on the evaluation of the synergy of pollution and carbon reduction among cities, industrial parks and enterprises around the construction of a beautiful China. At the city level, an evaluation index system of urban pollution and carbon reduction synergy was constructed, including 3 first-level indicators, 12 second-level indicators, and 22 third-level indicators. Among them, the first-level indicators are divided into target coordination, path coordination and management coordination. This indicator system is characterized by adhering to the combination of outcome evaluation and process evaluation, highlighting the key points and taking into account the comprehensiveness, reflecting regional differences in the setting of index objectives, and highlighting institutional innovation and technical support in the setting of weights. At the level of industrial parks, an evaluation index system for the synergy degree of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in industrial parks was constructed, including 3 first-level indicators, 7 second-level indicators and 15 third-level indicators. Among them, the first-level indicators are divided into target coordination, path coordination and management coordination. This indicator system also sets some indicators differently to improve the applicability of evaluation in different regions, different leading industries, and parks at different stages of development. At the enterprise level, an evaluation index system for the synergy degree of pollution reduction and carbon reduction of enterprises has been constructed, including 4 first-level indicators, 13 second-level indicators and 20 third-level indicators, among which additional indicators are set separately to reflect the characteristic practices of enterprises.

It is suggested that cities, parks and enterprises should formulate an evaluation index system of synergy in pollution reduction and carbon reduction in line with the actual situation on the basis of referring to the relevant evaluation index system, so as to better play the guiding function of evaluation. At the same time, we should strengthen the use of evaluation results, dynamically adjust the focus of relevant work, and incorporate them into the evaluation index system for the effectiveness of the construction of Beautiful China, and use the assessment results as an important reference for the comprehensive assessment and evaluation, reward, punishment, appointment and dismissal of leadership groups and relevant leading cadres at all levels.

China Environment News:In order to achieve the goal of building a beautiful China and achieve a steady decline in carbon emissions after peaking, what are the common problems that need to be paid attention to, and what should be the next step?

Tian Chunxiu:Judging from the work of promoting the coordination and efficiency of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in various places, there are still problems such as unclear understanding of the concept of synergy, imperfect design of systems and policy systems, failure to form a joint force of departmental promotion, insufficient technology and engineering for collaborative treatment of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and unclear effect of collaborative promotion. In the next step, it is necessary to guide key regions, cities, parks, and enterprises to form distinctive collaborative innovation practices and effective models for pollution reduction and carbon reduction based on their own development level and characteristics, resource and energy endowments, and collaborative emission reduction potential. At the same time, we will continue to make efforts in the following four aspects.

The first is to highlight the synergy of goals. It is necessary to build consensus and form a joint force, strengthen carbon reduction measures in key regions, industries and fields with pollution reduction as the traction, and solve the root causes and structural problems of environmental pollution with carbon reduction as the guide. At the city level, it is necessary to promote the total emission of major pollutants and carbon emissions per unit of industrial added value to achieve a double decline, and at the park level, it is necessary to promote the continuous improvement of the elasticity coefficient of major pollutants while achieving a decrease in carbon emission intensity, effectively improving the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, continuously improving the quality of the ecological environment, and achieving remarkable results in green and low-carbon development.

The second is to promote collaborative governance. It is necessary to take layout optimization and structural adjustment as the key, fully consider local realities, and coordinate the coordinated development of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in key areas such as energy, industry, transportation, urban and rural construction, agriculture and rural areas, and ecological construction. It is necessary to focus on optimizing the treatment path to improve the synergistic effect of the end treatment of air, water, soil, solid waste and other pollution. In addition, from the perspective of regional synergy, based on major national strategic opportunities, we should expand the new momentum of coupling development in the fields of industrial optimization, enterprise cultivation, and innovation pilots.

The third is to strengthen policy innovation. Implement the access system of "regional energy assessment + industrial energy efficiency evaluation". Explore the establishment of a "dual control" system for carbon emissions. Promote the environmental impact assessment of carbon emissions from construction projects in key industries. Establish a carbon footprint accounting system for the whole life cycle of key industrial products. Explore the inclusion of carbon emission indicators in the cleaner production evaluation index system of enterprises in key industries. Establish a collaborative project library for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, give full play to the guiding role of financial funds, encourage innovation in green and low-carbon financial products and services, and establish and improve policies for incentives and subsidies for collaborative governance technology research and development.

Fourth, improve management efficiency. Strengthen the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, technology integration demonstration, and application and promotion of synergistic technologies for pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Preparation of an inventory of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Rationally lay out urban atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring points. Coordinate the statistics, monitoring and information disclosure of pollutants and carbon emissions. Implement dual management of urban air quality compliance and carbon emission peaking. Build a digital and intelligent management platform for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, realize the visualization, simulation, control and evaluation functions of "pollution-carbon-energy", and improve the ability of prediction, early warning and prevention.