The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will issue a negative list for the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and by 2020, the relocation and upgrading of chemical enterprises will be completed. Pesticide manufacturers, take note!

　 Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “Three-Year Action Plan for Resolutely Winning the Battle Against Pollution in the Industrial and Telecommunications Sectors,” which sets forth the following goals: by 2020, energy consumption per unit of industrial value added among enterprises above designated size will be reduced by 18% compared with 2015 levels, and water consumption per unit of industrial value added will decline by 23% relative to 2015. The share of green manufacturing and high‑tech industries will increase substantially, the proportion of heavy and chemical industries in key regions and river basins will drop markedly, industrial spatial planning will be further optimized, the industrial structure will become more rational, the overall level of green industrial development will see a significant improvement, and mechanisms for advancing green development will be essentially established.
　　Key Points of the Three-Year Action Plan for Resolutely Winning the Battle Against Pollution in the Industrial and Telecommunications Sectors
　　To implement the “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Comprehensively Strengthening Ecological and Environmental Protection and Resolutely Winning the Battle Against Pollution,” and to earnestly fulfill the responsibilities for ecological and environmental protection in the industrial and telecommunications sectors, this Action Plan is formulated to advance green industrial development, resolutely win the battle against pollution, and promote high-quality development of the industrial and telecommunications industries as we strive to build a manufacturing powerhouse and a cyber power.
　　Specific scope of key regions: The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and its surrounding areas, including the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, and the cities of Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan, Xingtai, Baoding, Cangzhou, Langfang, and Hengshui in Hebei Province, as well as the Xiongan New Area; Taiyuan, Yangquan, Changzhi, and Jincheng in Shanxi Province; Jinan, Zibo, Jining, Dezhou, Liaocheng, Binzhou, and Heze in Shandong Province; and Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Anyang, Hebi, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, and Puyang in Henan Province, among others; the Yangtze River Delta region, comprising Shanghai Municipality, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Anhui Province; and the Fenwei Plain, including Jinzhong, Yuncheng, Linfen, and Lüliang in Shanxi Province, Luoyang and Sanmenxia in Henan Province, and Xi’an, Tongchuan, Baoji, Xianyang, Weinan, and the Yangling Demonstration Zone in Shaanxi Province.
　　Specific scope of key river basins: the Yangtze River Economic Belt, encompassing the 11 provinces of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou.
　　Adjust and optimize the industrial structure and spatial layout.
　　(1) Optimize industrial layout. Implement the Guidelines on Industrial Relocation for the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, guiding the rational relocation of industries in key regions and priority river basins. Introduce a negative list for market access to industrial development within the Yangtze River Economic Belt, clearly specifying industries, production processes, and product categories that are prohibited or subject to restrictions. (The Department of Industrial Policy within the Ministry is responsible; local departments of industry and information technology are tasked with implementation. The same applies to all subsequent measures, which will not be listed again.) Accelerate the relocation and upgrading of hazardous chemical production enterprises located in densely populated urban areas that fail to meet safety and sanitary protection distance requirements. By 2020, the relocation and upgrading of small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as large enterprises with significant risk factors, should be largely completed, with priority regions and river basins striving to lead the way. Promote the transformation and upgrading of steel enterprises in key cities, including Hebei Province, through measures such as complete shutdowns, industrial restructuring, in-situ upgrades, and off-site relocations. In conjunction with efforts to reduce excess steel capacity and promote scrap steel recycling, study policy measures to support and guide the development of electric‑arc furnace steelmaking. (The Department of Raw Materials Industry within the Ministry is responsible.)
　　(II) Adjust the industrial structure. Intensify efforts to reduce excess capacity, and strictly prohibit the addition of new production capacity in key regions for steel, cement, flat glass, coking, electrolytic aluminum, and casting. Strictly enforce the measures for capacity replacement in the steel, electrolytic aluminum, cement, and flat‑glass industries. Provide guidance and oversight to local governments to actively facilitate the orderly exit of excess capacity in these sectors. In 2018, further cut steel capacity by approximately 30 million tonnes, striving to achieve ahead of schedule the “13th Five-Year Plan” target of reducing steel capacity by 150 million tonnes. By the end of 2020, keep Hebei’s steel capacity below 200 million tonnes. Vigorously prevent the resurgence of “strip‑steel” production. (The Raw Materials Industry Department will take the lead, with participation from the Industrial Policy Department.) Increase the pace of phasing out outdated capacity in key industries such as steel, comprehensively applying quality, environmental protection, energy‑consumption, and safety standards to eliminate obsolete capacity in accordance with laws and regulations. Encourage localities to formulate policies for phasing out outdated capacity that are broader in scope and more stringent in standards. (The Industrial Policy Department is responsible.)
　　(3) Strengthen the comprehensive remediation of “scattered, chaotic, and polluting” enterprises. Actively cooperate with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to participate in formulating standards for the remediation of such enterprises and industrial clusters, taking into account industrial policies, industrial layout plans, and requirements related to land use, environmental protection, product quality, workplace safety, and energy consumption. Work with the ecological and environmental authorities to conduct surveys and categorize these industrial enterprises. (Led by the Department of Industrial Policy within the Ministry, with participation from the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Resource Utilization, the Department of Work Safety, the Department of Raw Materials Industry, the Department of Equipment Industry, the Department of Consumer Goods Industry, and the Department of Electronic Information.) Provide support for industrial enterprises included in the rectification and upgrading program to carry out technological upgrades and transformations. (The Department of Planning within the Ministry is responsible.)
　　(4) Implement staggered production schedules. In key regions, staggered production will be applied to priority industries during the autumn and winter seasons. Local authorities shall, for high-emission sectors such as steel, building materials, coking, casting, electrolytic aluminum, and chemicals, develop scientifically sound staggered‑production plans, adopt differentiated management measures, and refine these plans down to specific enterprise production lines, processes, and equipment. Enterprises that fail to complete their pollution‑control and upgrading tasks on schedule shall be included in the local staggered‑production plan and required to suspend operations. Strengthen production‑control measures for industrial enterprises during the autumn and winter period, intensify supervision and inspection of staggered‑production implementation, and strictly prevent one-size-fits-all approaches or unwarranted expansions of the scope of such measures. (Led by the Raw Materials Industry Department; with participation from the Planning Department, the Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization Department, the Equipment Industry Department, the Consumer Goods Industry Department, and the Operations Monitoring and Coordination Bureau.)
　　Accelerate the advancement of green and intelligent transformation and upgrading.
　　(5) Strengthen industrial energy conservation. Continue to carry out special campaigns for industrial energy‑conservation oversight, achieving full coverage of key high‑energy‑consumption industries. Implement an “Energy Efficiency Leader” system, conduct benchmarking and compliance assessments, and publish lists of energy‑efficiency leaders in priority energy‑using sectors. Accelerate the promotion and application of high‑efficiency, energy‑saving technologies and products, and issue the National Catalogue of Recommended Industrial Energy‑Conservation Technologies and Equipment as well as the “Energy Efficiency Star” Product Catalogue. (This is the responsibility of the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization within the Ministry.)
　　(6) Promote the comprehensive utilization of industrial resources. Establish a number of industrial resource‑comprehensive‑utilization bases, and vigorously advance the comprehensive utilization of industrial solid wastes such as phosphogypsum, metallurgical slag, and tailings along the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Publish a list of enterprises meeting standardized criteria for the comprehensive utilization of secondary resources, and guide these enterprises to grow stronger and larger. Vigorously promote the recycling and reuse of power batteries from new‑energy vehicles. Provide guidance on conducting evaluations of the comprehensive utilization of industrial solid wastes, and ensure the implementation of tax incentives for such utilization. Strive to achieve a national comprehensive utilization rate of 73% for industrial solid wastes and a total recycled volume of 350 million tons of major secondary resources by 2020. (The Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization within the Ministry is responsible.)
　　(7) Strengthen industrial water conservation. Raise water‑saving standards for industries in key river basins and water‑scarce regions such as North China. (Led by the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization, with participation from relevant departments and bureaus.) Vigorously promote nationally encouraged water‑saving processes, technologies, and equipment; launch a “Water Efficiency Leader” initiative; and guide and support industrial enterprises in conducting benchmarking and compliance activities to improve water efficiency. Continuously enhance water‑use efficiency in high‑water‑consumption sectors, including steel, petrochemicals, chemicals, textile dyeing, papermaking, and food processing. (Led by the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization, with participation from relevant departments and bureaus.)
　　(8) Deeply implement green manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing initiatives. Leverage green credit and special funds for green manufacturing to complete a number of major projects. Develop 100 green industrial parks, 1,000 green factories, promote 10,000 types of green products, and cultivate a group of enterprises with green supply chains, thereby significantly improving the efficiency of energy and resource utilization. (The Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization within the Ministry is responsible.) Accelerate the formulation and revision of standards related to energy conservation and green manufacturing, completing 100 green standards by 2020. (The Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of the Ministry will take the lead, with participation from relevant departments and bureaus.) Conduct pilot testing and validation of foundational common standards and industry-specific application standards for intelligent manufacturing, foster a cohort of intelligent manufacturing system solution providers, and intensify efforts to promote intelligent manufacturing across key sectors, including raw materials, equipment, consumer goods, electronics, and civilian explosives. (The Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry is responsible.)
　　(9) Win the tough battle to control pollution from diesel trucks. Severely crack down on the production and sale of motor vehicles that fail to meet emission standards, and revoke the vehicle‑type approval certificates of relevant enterprises. In coordination with transport and other departments, accelerate the phasing out of older vehicles; by the end of 2020, retire 1 million in‑service heavy‑duty diesel trucks meeting National III or lower emission standards in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and its surrounding areas, as well as in the Fenwei Plain. Starting July 1, 2019, key regions, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu–Chongqing area will implement the National VI emission standards for motor vehicles ahead of schedule. Promote the widespread use of clean‑energy vehicles and vessels. (The Equipment Industry Department within the Ministry is responsible.)
　　Foster and strengthen the green manufacturing industry.
　　(10) Vigorously develop green industries. Expand and strengthen the energy‑saving and environmental‑protection, clean production, and clean energy sectors. Promote the standardized development of the environmental protection equipment manufacturing industry, intensify the promotion and application of advanced environmental protection technologies, and raise the technological level of such equipment to provide robust support for pollution control. In industries such as metallurgy, building materials, nonferrous metals, chemicals, electroplating, papermaking, textile dyeing, and agricultural and sideline food processing, leverage voluntary cleaner production audits as a key mechanism to advance technological upgrades toward cleaner production.
　　(11) Promote new‑energy vehicles. By 2020, the production and sales of new‑energy vehicles will reach approximately 2 million units. In coordination with the transportation authorities and other relevant departments, accelerate the adoption of new‑energy or clean‑energy vehicles for newly purchased and replaced buses, sanitation vehicles, postal delivery vehicles, taxis, commuter vehicles, and light‑duty logistics and delivery vehicles in built‑up urban areas, with a target of 80% in key regions. (This task is under the responsibility of the Equipment Industry Department within the Ministry.)

Source: China Chemical Industry News