On 23 May, Shandong Province released an implementation plan for synergized pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. This major step, jointly rolled out by the Department of Ecology and Environment and six other departments, aligns with the ‘National Strategic Decision on Carbon Peaking and Neutrality.’
Shandong’s Implementation Plan offers a comprehensive framework that combines industrial restructuring, pollution control, ecological protection, and climate change response. The implementation strategy has been specially tailored to suit the province’s unique circumstances and is set to make a significant contribution towards the broader national environmental objectives.
The plan provides an overarching approach to integrate carbon peaking, neutrality, and ecological environment protection. Harnessing the power of the existing ecological environment system, the plan advances low-carbon development, intending to achieve tangible results in pollution reduction and carbon mitigation by 2025. This includes the establishment of a preliminary system for coordinated prevention and control at the source, significant progress in key areas, and improvement on coordination.
By 2030, the plan aims to achieve significant results in synergized pollution reduction and carbon mitigation, supporting the province in achieving its carbon peak goals.
This implementation plan comprises seven major sections:
- Overall Requirements: This section clarifies the guiding principles and main objectives of the plan.
- Source Control for Pollution Reduction and Carbon Mitigation: This component aims to curb blind development of high-energy consumption and high-emission projects, promote the green low-carbon transition of energy, and encourage the public to participate in green low-carbon activities.
- Synergized Pollution Reduction and Carbon Mitigation in Key Areas: This part of the plan details policies and measures for various sectors including industry, transportation, construction, agriculture, and ecology.
- Optimization of Environmental Governance Pathways: The plan proposes the continuous optimization of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation technology pathways in air, water, solid waste, and soil sectors. It emphasizes the importance of coordination between environmental governance and carbon reduction.
- Exploring Innovative Models: The plan places considerable focus on exploring new models for synergized pollution reduction and carbon mitigation in different areas like regions, cities, parks, and enterprises.
- Policy Support: This section outlines support measures from various perspectives including green low-carbon scientific and technological innovation projects, improved pollution reduction and carbon mitigation legal and regulatory standards, strengthening of coordinated management, strengthening of economic policies, and enhancement of monitoring, statistical, verification, accounting, and reporting capabilities.
- Organization and Implementation: This section clarifies requirements from three aspects: strengthening organizational leadership, promoting education and awareness, and supervising and evaluating progress.
The Implementation Plan can be characterized by four features:
- Emphasizing Coordinated Pollution Reduction and Carbon Mitigation: The plan focuses on green low-carbon transition of energy sector and transport sector, clean heating reforms, and elimination of outdated production capacities. These measures, while reducing pollutants, also curb carbon emissions. The plan seeks to enhance the synergistic effect of these actions through greater coordination of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation policies.
- Establishing an Integrated Promotion Mechanism: The plan leverages existing ecological environment laws, regulations, standards, and policies, as well as statistical, monitoring, and regulatory capabilities, to improve management systems, strengthen capabilities, and implement market mechanisms. The goal is to form effective incentives and constraints for pollution reduction and carbon mitigation.
- Intensifying Source Prevention and Control: This aspect involves a targeted approach towards the main sources of environmental pollutants and carbon emissions. The plan underscores the importance of resource and energy conservation, and the development of industrial structures, production methods, and lifestyles conducive to pollution reduction and carbon mitigation.
- Promoting Innovation in Synergized Pollution Reduction and Carbon Mitigation: The plan emphasises innovative models in regions, cities, parks, and enterprises, drawing on major national strategies and leveraging national low-carbon pilot cities, ecological industrial parks, and benchmark enterprises.
In conclusion, this plan is in line with other green and low-carbon, development policies in Shandong Province. By aligning with national strategies and drawing on specific regional and sectoral experiences, the plan underlines the potential for a more comprehensive, coordinated approach to environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality.
