The Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment pledged on Tuesday that it will ramp up its efforts to conduct pilot projects for pollution and carbon reduction and promote the green and low-carbon development of industrial parks by various means.
Speaking at press conference in Beijing, Wang Zhibin, director of the ministry's Department of Technology and Finance, said the ministry will continuously carry out multi-sector and multi-level coordinated innovation pilot projects for pollution and carbon reduction, while establishing and improving a coordinated standard system for pollution and carbon reduction in key industries.
The ministry, in collaboration with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has issued the "Implementation Plan for Coordinated Pollution and Carbon Reduction and Efficiency Enhancement" in 2022, he said.
In December 2023, the ministry released a list for the 21 pilot cities and 43 pilot industrial parks in this regard, of which many are the national-level economic and technological development zones.
"In October of last year, we also jointly issued the 'Opinions on Leveraging the Role of Green Finance to Serve the Building of a Beautiful China' with the authorities including the People's Bank of China. The guideline supports coordinated innovation pilot projects for pollution and carbon reduction in cities and industrial parks, encourages financial institutions to support basic research and key core technology breakthroughs in key areas such as pollution and carbon reduction, and provides financial assistance to these efforts," said Wang.
A total of 73 ecological industrial parks have been established as part of efforts for promoting green and low-carbon development, of which 43 are the national-level economic and technological development zones, Wang said.
The ministry will actively advance the mandatory audit of clean production for key enterprises, carry out innovative pilot projects for overall clean production audits in key industries and industrial parks, and select and promote advanced clean production technologies, said Wang.
In terms of environmental impact assessment (EIA), since 2024, the ministry has reviewed the EIAs of six national-level economic and technological development zones, with optimization and adjustment suggestions provided, he said.
He said that the ministry has selected 16 industrial parks to carry out pilot projects for the optimization classification management of EIAs, including four national-level economic and technological development zones.
China to continue promoting green, low-carbon development of industrial parks: official
