Li Chunyuan.
From the end of 2023 to the beginning of this year, many places across the country have experienced an unforgettable "New Year's Eve haze". During this period, the superior supervision and inspection at the same level found many problems of ineffective emergency response, among which, in the emergency process, some cities in the emergency process, due to the implementation of the agreed agreement between enterprises to reduce the emission reduction measures caused by the poor emergency effect, attracted attention.
The so-called negotiated emission reduction refers to the mutual assistance emission reduction plan reached between the relevant departments and enterprises or between multiple enterprises through consultation, and the operation of pollution prevention and control facilities is optimized by strengthening the operation and management of pollution prevention and control facilities, so as to better achieve the regional emission reduction target. This method is not only conducive to reducing the total amount of regional emissions in normal times, but also conducive to achieving emergency emission reduction goals in the face of heavy pollution weather warnings under adverse meteorological conditions. Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of daily precise emission reduction, or from the perspective of seeking emergency moments to reduce or avoid the occurrence of heavy pollution weather, and protect public health interests, it is a good measure to negotiate emission reduction. However, judging from the effectiveness of the prevention and control of heavily polluted weather in recent years, especially in the recent past, the measures to negotiate emission reduction have not been really implemented in reality, which has led to a series of thorny new situations and new problems in emergency management.
In an emergency inspection, it was found that a steel company did not reduce production and emission reduction in accordance with the requirements of the plan after the local heavy pollution weather warning was launched at the end of last year. The reason is that the enterprise is restricted by safety production and cannot stop the furnace in time, and has reached a negotiated emission reduction agreement with several relevant enterprises, and uses the emission reduction of the other party to offset the company's emissions during the emergency period. However, most of these companies did not limit production and reduce emissions as agreed, on the grounds that the orders were forced to be urgent and could not be fulfilled. In another place, it was found that in the list of enterprises participating in the negotiation of emission reduction provided by a certain enterprise, several enterprises have already stopped production or semi-suspended, and the negotiated emission reduction agreement cannot play a role in reducing emissions at all. Similar situations have emerged in several places.
According to the author's research, most of the enterprises that have taken the initiative to jointly implement negotiated emission reductions with other enterprises are concentrated in industries such as steel, glass, and coking, which rely on furnaces for their production processes. The main reason is when the unfavorable meteorological conditions come, when the emergency warning of heavy pollution weather starts, there is no fixed time, but these industries and enterprises are restricted by safety production, and most of them cannot implement the requirements of stopping and limiting production in a short period of time, and it is indeed difficult to stop and start quickly. In this case, if the negotiated emission reduction agreed by the enterprise or the relevant local departments is truly implemented, it is undoubtedly a good way to benefit the enterprise and the people. However, the practical problems are mainly concentrated in three aspects: first, the non-performance of the meeting enterprise; Second, the meeting enterprise is a false appointment with no actual emission reduction ability; Third, the relevant functional departments are not in place to supervise the performance of the contract.
In October 2023, Anyang City, Henan Province, gave 2.67 million yuan in rewards and subsidies to 87 enterprises that implemented better negotiated emission reduction measures in the first negotiated emission reduction season, thereby encouraging enterprises to dig deep into the potential of emission reduction without increasing investment in environmental protection hardware, and to achieve more and more effective emission reductions for group heating, which has received widespread attention from the society.
The author believes that the incentives and subsidies taken by Anyang City are undoubtedly a useful attempt to promote and promote the benign development of negotiated emission reduction. In order to solve the current problem of negotiated emission reduction, it is also necessary to combine the relevant departments to come forward with specific coordination, clarify the measures and details of negotiated emission reduction, strengthen inspection and supervision in the specific implementation process, and severely crack down on non-performance and fraud behavior, so as to truly form a good atmosphere for the effective implementation of this measure of negotiated emission reduction.
The substantive purpose of negotiating emission reductions is to actually reduce emissions. However, practice has proved that negotiating emission reductions in ordinary times and negotiating emission reductions in emergency situations are different things on the surface, but in fact there are two forces. In normal weather conditions, if there is non-compliance in the negotiation of emission reduction, the impact on air quality improvement, air quality assessment and public health interests may not be obvious. However, if the company that has agreed to negotiate emission reduction does not comply with the agreement under unfavorable meteorological conditions, or if the agreement to negotiate emission reduction itself is a kind of "fake emission reduction" that is superficial, then the mild pollution determined by the relevant authorities is likely to become severe pollution or above. This will not only fail the emission reduction target, but also seriously infringe on the public health interest. From this point of view, it is more important and urgent than usual to do a good job in the implementation of emission reduction agreements in the context of emergency response.
The prevention and control of air pollution is an arduous task that is long-term, complex and multi-contradictory. Years of practice have taught us that it is not enough to have only arrangements, deployments, and plans for many tasks. If we do not control the problems of formalism, dereliction of duty, and showmanship, the implementation of the final emission reduction target will be compromised. Therefore, when implementing the innovative measure of negotiated emission reduction, all localities must refine the targets and measures of negotiated emission reduction, and calculate every emission reduction account clearly. Only in this way can we truly do good things well and ensure that the emission reduction target is achieved as scheduled.
*: China Environment News.