Two departments: Increase policy support for distributed energy, smart grids, etc.

On March 17, according to the official website of the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Justice issued a notice on the "Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Legal and Policy System for Green Production and Consumption". It is required that by 2025, laws, standards, and policies related to green production and consumption will be further improved, a system framework with incentives and constraints in place will be basically established, green production and consumption methods will be fully promoted in key areas, key industries, and key links, and China's overall green development level will be enhanced.

Promote clean energy development and establish and improve mechanisms for ensuring the consumption of renewable energy power. Increase policy support for distributed energy, smart grids, energy storage technologies, and multi-energy complementarity, and research and formulate standard specifications and support policies for the development of new energies such as hydrogen energy and marine energy. Establish and improve policy mechanisms for clean development and utilization of coal, accelerating the clean development and utilization of coal from a full life cycle and full industry chain perspective.

Establish and improve promotion mechanisms for green products such as energy-saving home appliances, high-efficiency lighting products, water-saving appliances, green building materials, and new energy vehicles. Where conditions permit, local governments should provide appropriate support to consumers purchasing energy-saving home appliances, energy-saving new energy vehicles, and water-saving appliances. Encourage the adoption of new energy and clean energy vehicles for new and updated vehicles in areas such as public transportation, sanitation, taxis, commuting, urban postal express operations, and urban logistics.

The full text of the opinions is as follows:

Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Legal and Policy System for Green Production and Consumption

Promoting green production and consumption is an important part of building an ecological civilization and achieving high-quality development, to which the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance. Since the reform and opening up, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has issued a series of laws and policy measures in the field of green production and consumption, vigorously promoting green, circular, and low-carbon development, accelerating the formation of resource-saving and environment-friendly production and living methods, and achieving positive results. However, it must also be recognized that laws and policies in the field of green production and consumption are still incomplete, and there are problems such as insufficient incentives and constraints, and weak operability. To accelerate the establishment of a legal and policy system for green production and consumption, the following opinions are proposed.

I. Overall Requirements

(I) Guiding Principles. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implementing the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second, Third, and Fourth Plenums of the 19th Central Committee, deeply practicing Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought, adhering to a people-centered approach, implementing new development concepts, and following the principles of problem-orientation, highlighting key points, systemic synergy, applicability, feasibility, and gradual progress, accelerate the establishment of laws, standards, and policy systems related to green production and consumption, promote source reduction, clean production, resource recycling, and end-of-pipe treatment, expand green product consumption, and drive the formation of green production and consumption methods throughout society.

(II) Main Objectives. By 2025, laws, standards, and policies related to green production and consumption will be further improved, a system framework with incentives and constraints in place will be basically established, green production and consumption methods will be fully promoted in key areas, key industries, and key links, and China's overall green development level will be enhanced.

II. Main Tasks

(III) Promoting Green Design. Improve policy mechanisms for promoting green design. Establish a tiered quality control and labeling system for recycled resources, and promote recycled products and raw materials. Improve the list of priority controlled chemicals, guiding enterprises to use non-toxic, low-toxic, and environmentally friendly raw materials in the production process. Strengthen overall planning for standard formulation, strengthen the construction of a green standard system, expand the scope of standards, accelerate the formulation and revision of relevant standards in key areas, and improve standards and design specifications according to actual conditions. (Responsible by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, State Administration for Market Regulation, etc., according to their respective responsibilities)

(IV) Strengthening Industrial Clean Production. Strictly implement clean production audit methods, and clean production audit assessment and acceptance guidelines, further standardize clean production audit behavior, and ensure the quality of clean production audits. Introduce policy measures to deeply promote mandatory clean production audits in key industries. Improve the clean production evaluation index system for key industries and implement a dynamic adjustment mechanism. Improve differentiated electricity pricing policies based on energy consumption and pollutant emission levels, supporting key industry enterprises in implementing clean production technological transformations. Formulate incentive policies to support the research, development, and manufacturing of clean production equipment in key industries. (Responsible by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, etc., according to their respective responsibilities)

(V) Developing Industrial Circular Economy. Improve relevant support policies to promote the circular transformation of existing industrial parks and the circular construction of new parks. Improve support policies for the comprehensive utilization of associated minerals, tailings, industrial 'three wastes' (waste gas, waste water, solid waste), and waste heat/pressure. Focusing on electrical and electronic products, automotive products, power batteries, lead-acid batteries, and beverage paper-based composite packaging, accelerate the implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system, extending the scope of implementation to tires and other varieties when appropriate, and strengthening producers' responsibility for recycling and treating waste products. Support the establishment of recycling and remanufacturing systems for automotive old parts such as engines and gearboxes, and improve policies for vehicle scrapping and updating. Establish and improve green exploration, green mine standards, and policy support systems. Establish and improve policy mechanisms for water conservation and efficiency improvement in high water consumption industries. (Responsible by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Commerce, State Administration for Market Regulation, etc., according to their respective responsibilities)

(VI) Strengthening Industrial Pollution Control. Fully implement the pollutant discharge permit system and strengthen the legal responsibility of industrial enterprises for pollution prevention and control. Accelerate the formulation of feasible technical guidelines for pollution prevention and control, revise and formulate pollutant discharge standards based on the principles of stability, continuity, controllability, and attainability, strictly enforce environmental protection law enforcement supervision, achieve comprehensive compliance of industrial pollution sources with discharge standards, and encourage compliant enterprises to implement in-depth treatment. Improve supporting policies for centralized hazardous waste disposal facilities and sites as public environmental protection facilities. Establish and improve warning and emergency mechanisms for ecological environment emergencies that are clear in responsibility, reasonable in procedure, and scientific and standardized, and establish a post-assessment mechanism for ecological environment emergencies. Improve the judicial appraisal system for environmental damage caused by industrial pollution, establish and improve coordination mechanisms between administrative management agencies, administrative law enforcement agencies, and supervisory agencies, judicial agencies, promote the sharing of punishment information and monitoring information in the field of industrial pollution control, give full play to the public interest functions of procuratorial organs, and form a diversified pattern of industrial pollution control. (Responsible by the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, etc., according to their respective responsibilities)

(VII) Promoting Clean Energy Development. Establish and improve laws and policies adapted to the large-scale development of renewable energy, making corresponding provisions and policy adjustments in aspects such as planning coordination, grid connection and consumption, and pricing mechanisms, following the principles of simplification, universality, stability, and gradual change, and establish and improve mechanisms for ensuring the consumption of renewable energy power. Increase policy support for distributed energy, smart grids, energy storage technologies, and multi-energy complementarity, and research and formulate standard specifications and support policies for the development of new energies such as hydrogen energy and marine energy. Establish and improve policy mechanisms for clean development and utilization of coal, accelerating the clean development and utilization of coal from a full life cycle and full industry chain perspective. Establish a full life cycle evaluation mechanism for energy consumption, emissions, and costs in various links such as energy development and production, trade and transportation, equipment manufacturing, and conversion and utilization. (Responsible by the National Energy Administration, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Transport, State Administration for Market Regulation, etc., according to their respective responsibilities)

(VIII) Promoting green agricultural development. Guided by green ecology, innovate the institutional mechanisms for green agricultural development, carry out the construction of a support system for green agricultural development, innovate the technical system, improve the standard system, extend the industrial system, strengthen the management system, and improve the policy system to provide guarantees for green agricultural development. Vigorously promote scientific fertilization and establish a policy mechanism for promoting organic fertilizer to replace chemical fertilizers. Implement the chemical pesticide reduction and substitution plan, establish a policy mechanism for promoting biological control to replace chemical control, and support the research and promotion of green prevention and control technical products for crop diseases and pests. Formulate measures for the management of agricultural films, establish a full-process supervision system, and support the promotion and use of biodegradable agricultural films. Accelerate the formulation of management measures for the recycling and disposal of pesticide packaging waste. Improve the comprehensive utilization system for crop straw, and promote the comprehensive utilization of all straw quantities at the county level. With fertilization and energy conversion as the main utilization directions, implement the resource utilization system for livestock and poultry manure. Improve and implement green development policies for aquaculture, and strengthen unified planning of aquaculture waters and beaches according to law. Establish norms for the use of feed additives and veterinary drugs, and improve the harmless disposal mechanism for diseased and dead livestock and poultry. Steadily advance the pilot system for crop rotation and fallow land. Improve the promotion system for agricultural circular economy and establish a promotion mechanism for green agricultural production technology. Implement tax support policies for green agricultural development. Establish and improve relevant standards for green agricultural development, and accelerate the cleaning up and abolition of standards and industry norms that are incompatible with green agricultural development. (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Water Resources, State Taxation Administration, State Administration for Market Regulation, etc., are responsible according to their respective duties)

(IX) Promoting green development of the service industry. In the revision and formulation of standards and norms related to the planning, construction, operation, and management of municipal public utilities and urban and rural public life service facilities, comprehensively implement the concept of green development and enhance the level of greening. Improve support policies for green logistics construction. Accelerate the establishment and improvement of legal, standard, and policy systems for green packaging in express delivery, e-commerce, take-out, and other fields, reduce excessive packaging and the use of disposable items, and encourage the use of biodegradable and recyclable packaging materials and logistics tools. Improve management and technical specifications for recycling and utilization of renewable resources. (Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Natural Resources, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce, State Administration for Market Regulation, National Railway Administration, Civil Aviation Administration of China, State Post Bureau, etc., are responsible according to their respective duties)

(X) Expanding green product consumption. Improve the green product certification and labeling system. Establish and improve the quality standard system for comprehensive utilization products of solid waste. Implement tax incentives for energy-saving, water-saving, environmental protection, and comprehensive resource utilization industries. Actively promote the green product government procurement system, combine it with the implementation of product catalog management, and increase the application of green product standards in government procurement. State-owned enterprises should take the lead in implementing green procurement guidelines for enterprises and establish and improve green procurement management systems. Establish and improve promotion mechanisms for green products such as energy-saving home appliances, high-efficiency lighting products, water-saving appliances, green building materials, and new energy vehicles. Where conditions permit, appropriate support should be given to consumers purchasing energy-saving home appliances, energy-saving new energy vehicles, water-saving appliances, etc. Encourage the use of new energy and clean energy vehicles for new and replacement vehicles in public transportation, sanitation, taxis, commuting, urban postal express operations, urban logistics, and other fields. (National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, State Taxation Administration, State Administration for Market Regulation, National Railway Administration, Civil Aviation Administration of China, State Post Bureau, etc., are responsible according to their respective duties)

(XI) Promoting green lifestyles. Improve tiered pricing policies for residential electricity, water, and gas. Implement the sewage treatment fee system, adjusting the sewage treatment fee standard to cover the operating costs of sewage treatment and sludge disposal facilities and achieve a reasonable profit level. Accelerate the implementation of urban and rural household waste classification and resource utilization systems. Formulate policy measures to further strengthen plastic pollution control. Research and formulate regulations for the management and resource utilization of kitchen waste. Promote green farm house construction methods and technologies, and gradually establish and improve a rural housing construction mechanism that uses green building materials and builds green farm houses. (National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, etc., are responsible according to their respective duties)

III. Organization and Implementation

In accordance with the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and the needs of reform,统筹推动绿色生产和消费领域法律法规的立改废释工作. All relevant departments shall, according to their respective responsibilities, accelerate the revision and formulation of relevant laws, regulations, standards, and policies. All regions shall, in accordance with the requirements of this opinion, formulate regulations, standards, and policies to promote green production and consumption in their regions in light of actual conditions, encourage piloting, and summarize and promote experience. Financial, tax, and financial departments at all levels should continue to improve support policies in the field of green production and consumption. Propaganda departments at all levels should organize media through various channels and methods to vigorously publicize and promote the concepts of green production and consumption, increase the publicity of relevant laws, regulations, and policy measures, build social consensus, and create a good atmosphere. 

(This article was published by the National Development and Reform Commission)

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