context: This final version confirms previous rumours that the state would remove heating season industrial production controls from the central plan this year. The environmental agency was accused of imposing blanket output cuts on companies last year, causing economic pain. The new plan aims to be more targeted, granting localities more autonomy in deciding the scale of production suspensions.
On 27 September, twelve agencies along and six local governments including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong and Henan, jointly issued ‘Air pollution control plan for Jingjinji and surrounding areas autumn and winter 2018-19’.
The policy stipulates
- air quality targets for Jingjinji and surrounding areas for 1 Oct 2018 through 31 Mar 2019
- concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) should decrease by around three percent y-o-y
- number of days with severe pollution should decrease by around three percent y-o-y
- key tasks are
- controlling and eliminating capacity of ‘energy-intensive, high-emission industries’ including steel, glass, cement and construction materials
- by end September 2018, carrying out a new round of inspections on ‘scattered, chaotic and polluting’ firms
- starting 1 Oct 2018, ‘strictly’ enforcing special discharge limits in thermal power, steel, petrochemical, chemical, non-ferrous metals and cement industries, as well as industrial boilers
- ‘orderly’ implementation of ultra-low emission standards in steel industry
- by end December 2018, completing reviews and issuing pollutant discharge permits for ceramics and secondary non-ferrous metals
- drafting plans to replace low-grade coal with cleaner heating fuels including renewables and gas
- eliminating or upgrading coal-fired boilers
- boosting rail transportation
- increasing adoption of new energy vehicles and vehicles complying with Stage 6 emission standards
- controlling dust pollution
- suspending new open-pit coal mine projects
- controlling outdoor straw burning
- carrying out special inspections targeting
- diesel trucks
- industrial kilns and furnaces
- volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions
- enhancing emergency response to heavily polluted days
- implementing ‘differentiated’ staggered production policies which allow each province to individually decide production suspension during winter heating season
- improving environmental monitoring network
- setting up automatic monitoring of pollution sources
- strengthening technological support and environmental enforcement
- enhancing central environmental inspections and special inspections of air pollution
- ensuring natural gas and electricity supply