Entering the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan", some places have violated the law and rushed to the "two highs" (high energy consumption and high emissions) projects, and the problem of unapproved construction is prominent.
The second round of the third and fourth batches of central ecological and environmental protection inspectors also found that there are still traditional path dependencies in some places, not only for the existing "two high" projects, but also for "compliance" to make changes and play "edge ball".
The problem of illegal activities in the "two supremes" projects in many places is prominent
The second round of the fourth batch of the Central Third Ecological Environmental Protection Supervision Group reported on October 26 that inspectors in Hubei found that some industrial parks in Yangxin County and Daye City in Huangshi City blindly launched the "two highs" projects, some projects were built before approval, and the coal consumption substitution work was not real.
According to the inspection team, as of January 2021, the Huangshi Xingang (Logistics) Industrial Park has passed the three "two highs" projects of provincial energy conservation review, and the new energy consumption has reached 876,000 tons of standard coal, accounting for 73% of the energy consumption target of Huangshi City's "14th Five-Year Plan" proposed by Hubei Province. In this regard, the relevant departments of Hubei Province clearly require the city to resolutely control other high-energy-consuming projects on the re-launch. However, since February 2021, the park has organized the declaration of 5 "two high" projects, of which 1 has been approved by the relevant provincial departments, involving 107,000 tons of new energy consumption of standard coal, including 4 demonstrations in the early stage of energy conservation review, involving new energy consumption of 2.029 million tons of standard coal.
The measures for the energy conservation review of relevant state departments require that the construction unit shall not start construction of projects that have not carried out energy conservation review in accordance with regulations or fail to pass the energy conservation review, and require the energy conservation review organ to strengthen supervision during and after the event, and supervise and inspect the implementation of energy conservation review opinions。
However, the inspector found that the eight "two highs" projects located in the Huangshi Xingang (Logistics) Industrial Park and the Lingcheng Industrial Park in Daye City were started immediately after the procedures were incomplete, and the management committee of the relevant industrial park and the local relevant departments tacitly agreed to the long-term illegal construction of some enterprises. Hubei Pengcheng Technology Co., Ltd., with an annual output of 1 million tons of energy-saving and environmental protection calcium industry project in Huangshi Xingang (Logistics) Industrial Park, started construction in August 2020 without energy-saving review, and was not urgently stopped until July 2021 after being named by the relevant state departments; the oxygen production project of Huangshi Hang Oxygen Co., Ltd. was revoked by the park in July 2021 due to non-compliance with the relevant planning and industrial policies of Huangshi Xingang (Logistics) Industrial Park, but in September 2021, the on-site inspection team found that The project is still under construction and is nearly complete.
The inspector found that the Hubei Yitong Casting Industry Co., Ltd. with an annual output of 300,000 tons of ductile iron pipe project in The Lingcheng Industrial Park in Daye City started construction in March 2019 without energy-saving review and was put into operation in July 2021. The relevant departments of Daye City neither replace the energy consumption of some illegal "two high" projects that exceed the total energy consumption, nor do they include them in the "14th Five-Year Plan" new energy consumption project management, and only after assessing and determining their energy efficiency level, they are considered to have completed rectification and let the project construction and production be allowed.
On September 27, the second round of the fourth batch of the central fourth ecological environmental protection supervision group reported that the "two highs" project in Yunfu City, Guangdong Province, was not well controlled, the problems of enterprises building first and illegal energy use were prominent, and the situation of dual control of energy consumption was grim.
According to the inspection team, in 2020, there are 30 "two high" enterprises in Yunfu City that consume more than 10,000 tons of standard coal, of which 17 exceed the total energy consumption due to overload production, and nearly 60% of the enterprises have illegal energy use behavior, and the energy consumption exceeds 653,000 tons of standard coal, exceeding 47% of the approved energy consumption. In the first half of 2021, the energy consumption of the city's stock of "two high" enterprises still increased by 230,000 tons year-on-year, close to the control target of 250,000 tons of total energy consumption in 2021.
Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province, also has a situation of ineffective double control of energy consumption and prominent problems of illegal "two high" projects. The second round of the fourth batch of the Central First Ecological environmental protection supervision group reported that in the case of the state and provinces repeatedly requesting further reduction of the "two highs" projects, Liaoyuan City still reported to the province in March 2021 14 "14th Five-Year Plan" key energy-using projects to be put into operation and reached production, and the total new energy consumption of 3.31 million tons of standard coal was designed.
Some local departments violated the law and blindly embarked on the "two highs" project
These "two highs" projects mentioned above are only the "tip of the iceberg".
The National Development and Reform Commission's press conference in August disclosed that in the first half of this year, the energy intensity of 9 provinces (regions) in Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Shaanxi and Jiangsu did not decrease year-on-year, but rose, and the energy intensity reduction rate of 10 provinces did not meet the progress requirements.
Behind this is the violation of the law by some local departments and blindly launched the "two supremes" project.
On the 26th, the second round of the fourth batch of the Central Fifth Ecological Environmental Protection Supervision Group reported that inspector Sichuan found that leshan ceramics and other industries were blindly developed, supervision and management were lacking, the project energy-saving review was not strict, and the planning and construction control of high-energy-consuming and high-emission projects was not in place.
The inspector found that Leshan City did not have enough understanding and strict control of the "two highs" project, and did not actively take energy consumption control measures such as equal amount and reduction substitution, nor did it obtain the project energy conservation review opinions, acquiesced to the unauthorized construction of high-energy-consuming projects such as the ionic membrane caustic soda and polyvinyl chloride project of Yongxiang Co., Ltd., and the problem of unapproved construction was prominent. In September 2019, the relevant departments of Leshan Emeishan City did not seriously check and issued a review opinion on the energy saving report of the 200,000 tons/year calcium product upgrading project of Sichuan Emeishan Jiule Nano New Materials Co., Ltd., resulting in the project being launched in violation of the law.
On September 17, the second round of the fourth batch of the Central First Ecological Environmental Protection Supervision Group announced that on the eve of stationing, the Jilin Provincial Energy Bureau and the Provincial Development and Reform Commission have successively approved coal substitution plans, energy-saving review opinions and other relevant procedures for the 1.2 million tons/year coking project of Jilin Xinda Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. However, the inspector found that the coal substitution plan reported by the Liaoyuan Municipal Government was obviously untrue, and it was planned to achieve a coal consumption substitution of 435,600 tons by adjusting the coal consumption statistics of a coal production enterprise, in fact, the annual coal consumption of the enterprise was not reduced, and it was purely "digital substitution".
In April this year, the second round of the third batch of the Fifth Central Ecological Environmental Protection Supervision Group reported that in Anyang City, Henan Province, Ansteel Company transferred 2 million tons of steelmaking capacity to Zhoukou City in 2018 and 2019, and simultaneously closed the 4.3-meter coke oven with a total coking capacity of 1.8 million tons / year. In October 2020, Anyang City applied to leave the coking capacity index of Ansteel Company in the local area for the replacement of new coking capacity.
In the absence of approval, Anyang City arbitrarily counted the 1.8 million tons of coking capacity transferred from Zhoukou as a offset against the 20% capacity reduction target that should be completed locally, and used the remaining 4.8 million tons of coking capacity for the new coking capacity target of three other enterprises. As of the time of inspection, the three enterprises have started construction, 4 coke ovens have been built, 4 are under construction, and the total production capacity is 4.8 million tons per year.
The 1.68 million tons/year coking project in Zhoukou City, which undertakes the transfer capacity index of Ansteel Company, has also been filed with the local Development and Reform Commission and entered the bidding process. As a result, the phenomenon of "one woman and two marriages" in the 1.8 million tons of coking capacity of Ansteel Company has emerged.
In July this year, the second round of the third batch of the central first ecological environmental protection supervision group reported that some localities and departments in Shanxi Province have a strong desire to launch the "two highs" project, and the "double control" of energy consumption is not tightly grasped. The province plans to launch 178 "two high" projects, with an estimated energy consumption of 59.42 million tons of standard coal, which greatly exceeds the new energy consumption space in the "14th Five-Year Plan".
The inspector found that of the 178 projects in Shanxi, 101 were under construction or had already been built, of which 72 were incomplete, accounting for 71.3%. The reduction of non-electric coal work has "opened one side" to the coking industry, and the province's coking industry will consume more than 130 million tons of coal in 2020.
Carbon peaking is not climbing peaks and competing for space
"If the blind development of the 'two highs' project is allowed, the consequences will be very serious, which will directly affect the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, directly affect the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure and energy structure adjustment, and directly affect the improvement of ambient air quality." Xu Bijiu, executive deputy director of the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Supervision Office, said.
In May this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Prevention and Control of Ecological Environment Sources in Construction Projects with High Energy Consumption and High Emissions" clearly stated that environmental access to construction projects should be strictly controlled and regional reduction requirements should be implemented. New construction, reconstruction and expansion of "two highs" projects must comply with the laws and regulations on ecological environmental protection and relevant statutory planning, and meet the requirements of the total discharge control of key pollutants, the peak target of carbon emissions, the ecological environment access list, the environmental impact assessment of relevant planning and the environmental access conditions of construction projects in corresponding industries, and the principles of approval of environmental impact assessment documents.
The guiding opinions make it clear that the new "two highs" projects should be in accordance with the requirements of the "Notice on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Regional Reduction Measures for Construction Projects in Key Industries", formulate supporting regional pollutant reduction plans in accordance with regional environmental quality improvement goals, take effective regional pollutant reduction measures, and free up sufficient environmental capacity.
Wang Jinnan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Yan Gang, vice president of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, recently jointly wrote an article saying, "In the survey, it was found that many places believe that the use of fossil energy can continue to increase significantly before 2030, and even plan the "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan on the 'high carbon' track, climb the 'new peak' of carbon emissions, and then consider falling after reaching the 'new peak'." ”
"The local government is the main body responsible for implementing the national carbon peak task." Wang Jinnan and Yan Gang said in the above article that the emissions of the new high-carbon projects in the "14th Five-Year Plan" will continue until around 2050, which will bring great pressure to achieve the 2060 carbon neutrality target and will also compress the development space of low-carbon technologies in the next 20 to 30 years.
Wang Jinnan said that industry is the main area of carbon dioxide emissions in China, accounting for about 80% of the country's total emissions, so achieving the peak of key industries as soon as possible and quickly crossing the platform period is the key to ensuring that the country reaches the peak by 2030.
Pan Jiahua, a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also said that carbon peaking is not climbing the peak, not competing for space and touching the peak, but to cut the peak, press the peak, and pull down the peak level in order to move towards net zero carbon, "to achieve carbon peaking should not be blindly tossed, beware of misleading, there is no shortcut to achieve zero-carbon energy."