Compensation for ecological and environmental damage is included in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the battle against
pollution
core reading
The issuance of the "Administrative Regulations on Compensation for Ecological and Environmental Damage" is a further consolidation of the achievements of the reform of compensation for ecological and environmental damage that have been carried out for many years. Assure.
□ Our reporter Zhang Wei
The reform of the compensation system for ecological and environmental damage has taken a further step towards the rule of law, normalization and standardization.
Recently, after the deliberation and approval of the Central Comprehensive Deepening Reform Committee, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and other departments, issued the "Regulations on the Administration of Compensation for Ecological Environmental Damage" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations").
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that the "Regulations" put forward requirements in clarifying the division of responsibilities of departments, consolidating the responsibilities of local party committees and governments, and standardizing compensation procedures.
Many industry experts believe that the issuance of the "Regulations" is a further consolidation of the achievements of the ecological and environmental damage compensation reform that has been carried out for many years. system guarantee.
It is suggested to start from strengthening legislation and improving the system, so that the ecological environment damage compensation system becomes a powerful means to promote precise pollution control, scientific pollution control, and law-based pollution control.
Solve the problem of "enterprise pollution, the government pays the bill"
Years ago, the problem of "enterprises polluting, people suffering, and the government paying the bill" was more prominent.
"Although the responsible person has been sanctioned by the law, the remaining ecological environment damage problem has not been solved, the damaged environment has not been restored, and the people's ecological environment rights and interests have not been guaranteed." said Qi Ji, deputy director of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
To this end, the central government launched the reform of the ecological environment damage compensation system.
In 2015, the Central Office and the State Office issued the "Pilot Plan for the Reform of the Compensation System for Ecological Environmental Damage" and carried out pilot programs in seven provinces and cities including Jilin.
In Qi Ji's view, the background of the reform is that the legal responsibility for damage to the ecological environment is not clear, the legal system is not sound, and the legislation does not involve compensation and restoration of the damaged ecological environment.
After two years of pilot exploration, in 2017, the Central Office and the State Office issued the "Reform Plan for Ecological Environmental Damage Compensation System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Reform Plan"). In 2019, we will strive to initially establish a nationwide compensation system for ecological and environmental damage with clear responsibilities, smooth channels, technical specifications, strong guarantees, adequate compensation, and effective restoration.
It is understood that in the promotion of ecological environment damage compensation, all localities take case practice as an important starting point to promote reforms and repair the damaged ecological environment in a timely manner.
Statistics from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment show that by the end of 2021, more than 11,300 compensation cases had been handled nationwide, involving a compensation amount of more than 11.7 billion yuan.
A total of 36 million cubic meters of soil, 61 million square meters of forest land, 300 million cubic meters of water bodies, and 90 million tons of solid waste have been cleaned up nationwide.
Ningxia Meili Paper Group Environmental Protection and Energy Conservation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Meili Paper) is one of the typical cases.
From August 2003 to June 2007, Murray Paper illegally dumped the black, sticky waste from papermaking, causing damage to soil, groundwater and vegetation in 14 plots in the border area of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia in the Tengger Desert.
After appraisal, the amount of compensation for ecological and environmental damage is 198 million yuan.
After this pollution case occurred, by exploring the method of "one-time signing and implementation in stages", in December 2020, the Zhongwei Municipal Government of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Alxa League Administrative Office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Murray Paper reached a compensation agreement.
At the same time, the three parties unanimously agreed that the compensation work will be implemented in two stages, that is, the expenditure of the first stage is 44.23 million yuan, which is used to carry out pollution status investigation and pollution cleanup implementation projects; Risk management and control, forest area management and protection, ecological environment benefit assessment, etc., and compensation for the loss of service functions of ecological resources during the period of 154 million yuan in two ways: compensatory restoration of deserts and deduction of ecological benefits of forest land.
"During the handling of the case, the governments of Zhongwei and Alxa have effectively divided labor and cooperated to ensure the smooth progress of the negotiation. For the first time, the case has deducted damages with ecological benefits, creating an innovative approach to compensation for ecological and environmental damage," said a relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Clarify the division of labor and compact local responsibilities
It is worth noting that with the advancement of the reform, the relevant legislation has been increasingly improved.
In 2020, the Civil Code was officially promulgated, and the results of the reform were elevated to the basic laws of the country, and the compensation system for ecological and environmental damage was officially incorporated into the legal framework.
In addition, the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law enacted in August 2018, the Forest Law revised in December 2019, the Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law revised in April 2020, and the Yangtze River Protection Law enacted in December 2020 all stipulate the ecological environment related to damages.
The compensation system for ecological and environmental damage has also been incorporated into party regulations.
The "Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspector Work Regulations" formulated in June 2019 clarifies that if the inspector finds that it is necessary to carry out compensation for ecological environment damage, it will be transferred to the provincial government for compensation in accordance with relevant regulations.
Local legislation is also accelerating.
Recently, 21 provinces including Jilin, Jiangsu, Fujian, Sichuan, etc. have determined the compensation for ecological environment damage when revising or promulgating relevant local regulations.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that at present, there are still problems such as inadequate implementation of responsibilities, insufficient inter-departmental linkage, and procedural rules to be regulated in the work of ecological and environmental damage compensation. " is different and needs to be well connected. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce relevant measures at the national level to further guide practical work.
To this end, the "Regulations" clarify the division of tasks among departments and consolidate the responsibilities of local party committees and governments. For example, the outstanding issues of ecological environment damage compensation are included in the central and provincial ecological and environmental protection inspectors, the evaluation of the effectiveness of pollution prevention and control, and the evaluation of environmental protection.
It also requires the local government to establish a ledger for major cases, set out a timetable, and speed up the processing progress.
Professor Sun Baohai, Dean of the School of Law of Tianjin University, was deeply impressed by the details of the "Working Procedures" in the "Regulations": "Screening clues, case jurisdiction, claim initiation, damage investigation, appraisal and evaluation, and claim negotiation for ecological environment damage compensation cases. The rights and obligations of key links such as judicial confirmation, compensation litigation, and restoration effect evaluation have been stipulated, 10 screening clue channels have been refined, 6 types of situations of not initiating and terminating claims have been identified, and 4 key links of damage investigation have been clarified point."
The "Regulations" also clarify how much and how to pay for ecological environment damage. For example, the scope of compensation for ecological environment damage includes five aspects: cleaning costs; restoration costs; loss of service functions during ecological environment restoration; permanent ecological environment functions damage; reasonable expenses for investigation, appraisal and evaluation.
Ecological environmental damage can be divided into two types: repairable and irreparable.
For those that can be repaired, they shall be restored to the baseline level before the damage to the ecological environment or to an acceptable level of ecological environmental risk; for those that cannot be repaired, the obligator of compensation shall compensate for the relevant losses and the relevant expenses within the scope of compensation for the damage to the ecological environment in accordance with the law, or Under the premise of complying with relevant regulations, policies and plans for ecological environment restoration, carry out alternative restoration to achieve equal restoration of the ecological environment and its service functions.
Promote the incorporation of reform results into the legal system
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that after the "Regulations" are issued, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will strengthen inspections and assessments, and focus on supervising the implementation of the reform work if the work is carried out slowly and the case handling is not well advanced.
Qi Ji believes that the following issues should be paid attention to when implementing the "Regulations": Continue to include outstanding issues of ecological and environmental damage compensation into the inspection and evaluation of the effectiveness of pollution prevention and control, and promote the implementation of work responsibilities to specific departments and personnel; give full play to the leading role of the ecological environment department. , strengthen cooperation and exchanges with judicial, natural resources and other departments, and give full play to the synergy of multi-departmental coordination; increase the investigation of case leads, form a case ledger, carry out claims in accordance with laws and regulations, and implement system norms into case practice; On the basis of the rising rate, increase the case closing rate to ensure that every clue has a response, and every case has its whereabouts. Repair, the repair effect meets the requirements; in practice, problems in the management system or technical methods are discovered in a timely manner, and suggestions for revision are put forward, and special legislation is actively promoted to promote the further improvement of the ecological environment damage compensation system.
He Jun, vice president of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, suggested that the compensation for ecological and environmental damage should be promoted in conjunction with the compilation of the Environmental Code.
Unify legal terminology, coordinate the connection of civil, administrative, and criminal legal responsibilities, and coordinate consultations with environmental public interest litigation, civil litigation, administrative law enforcement, and criminal incidental civil litigation.
It should also be combined with the drafting and deliberation of the drafting of relevant laws such as the National Park Law, and include the content of ecological environment damage compensation.
"The ecological environment damage compensation system involves farmland, forests, grasslands and other aspects. The existing legal system has not fully covered the specific requirements of the ecological environment damage compensation system. Combined with the laws that are being formulated and revised, the results of the reform system are promoted into the legal system." He Jun said.
He Jun also proposed to coordinate the use of various types of funds from the legal level, and include some fines and fines into the scope of funds for ecological and environmental damage restoration to ensure sufficient restoration funds.