□ Our reporter Zhang Wei

  By the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan", my country's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by 48.4% compared with 2005, exceeding the target of 40% to 45% reduction, becoming one of the countries with the fastest reduction in energy intensity in the world;

  In 2021, the proportion of clean energy in my country's total energy consumption will rise to 25.5%, the installed capacity of hydropower, wind power, photovoltaic power generation, and biomass power generation, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles will all rank first in the world;

  Compared with 2015, the average concentration of PM2.5 in cities at the prefecture level and above will drop by 34.8% in 2021, making it the country with the fastest air pollution control in the world;

  In 2021, my country's forest coverage rate will reach 23.04%, which is the country with the largest increase in global forest resources in the past 20 years;

  ...

  The uncountable "fastest", "first" and "most" are the historic, turning,

  Global changes made the most striking footnote.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment attributed the fundamental reason for creating a world-renowned ecological miracle and green development miracle to "the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping's thought on ecological civilization and Xi Jinping's thought on the rule of law".

At the same time, the construction of the rule of law in the ecological environment has also achieved "all-round, pioneering and historic achievements".

  "The ecological environment system must adhere to the strictest system and the strictest rule of law to protect the ecological environment, fight the tough battle of pollution prevention and control in accordance with the law, and promote the construction of a beautiful China where man and nature coexist in harmony," said Sun Jinlong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The ecological and environmental legal system has been reconstructed

  In the past ten years, ecological environment legislation has been comprehensively improved from quantity to quality. According to Bie Tao, director of the Department of Regulations and Standards of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, "a pragmatic, effective, and strict system of laws and regulations for ecological and environmental protection has basically been formed."

The biggest bright spot is "the legal system of ecological environment has been reconstructed".

  This "reconstruction" takes many forms: improving the "Basic Law" of the ecological environment.

In 2014, comprehensively revised the basic and comprehensive law in the field of ecological environment - "Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China".

The new environmental protection law has made major breakthroughs in innovating environmental protection concepts, strengthening government responsibilities, improving supervision systems, increasing punishment, promoting information disclosure, and introducing public interest litigation. The most stringent environmental protection law in history.

  Improve the individual law on the ecological environment.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment focuses on the prominent environmental issues that the people feel the most deeply and has the most urgent demands, and cooperates with the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to formulate and revise a number of special laws on the prevention and control of air, water, soil, solid waste, noise, and radioactivity, as well as wetland protection and wetland protection. Laws on ecological elements such as biosecurity, and legal means to defend blue sky, clear water, and pure land.

  Innovate watershed and regional ecological environment legislation.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment cooperated with the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to formulate the Yangtze River Protection Law and the Black Land Protection Law, promote the Yellow River Protection Law and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Legislation, and comprehensively enhance the "ecological value" of clear waters and lush mountains.

Support the coordinated legislation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Baiyangdian watersheds, etc., and solve cross-regional ecological and environmental problems through "small and fast-paced" legislation to promote high-quality regional development.

  Build a more scientific and reasonable ecological environment supervision system.

Promote the establishment of a fixed pollution source management system centered on the pollutant discharge permit system.

Improve basic systems such as environmental impact assessment, total volume control, environmental standards, environmental monitoring, and law enforcement supervision.

Establish a legal accountability mechanism for severe punishment and severe punishment.

  This determination and strength to strengthen ecological and environmental protection is particularly evident in accelerating the construction of internal party regulations and consolidating the responsibilities of the party committee and the government.

In November 2012, the "Constitution of the Communist Party of China (Amendment)" passed by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China included "the Communist Party of China leads the people to build a socialist ecological civilization" into the party constitution.

In October 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China revised the Party Constitution, adding content such as "enhancing the awareness that clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".

The Party Central Committee formulated and implemented the "Central Ecological Environmental Protection Supervision Work Regulations", "Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspector's Rectification Work Measures", "Party and Government Leading Cadres Accountability for Ecological Environmental Damage (Trial)", "Leading Cadres' Resignation Audit Regulations on Natural Resources Assets (Trial)" )" and other special intra-party regulations, and in more than 10 important regulations such as the "Accountability Regulations of the Communist Party of China", important institutional arrangements have been made for the construction of ecological civilization to promote the transformation of the party's institutional advantages into the efficiency of ecological environment governance.

  "Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party has strengthened its overall leadership in the construction of ecological civilization, and has made comprehensive efforts in ideology, law, system, organization and work style to strengthen ecological and environmental protection in an all-round, region-wide, and whole-process manner. The continuous improvement of internal laws and regulations has provided a strong institutional guarantee for promoting the implementation of the Party Central Committee's decision-making and deployment." Sun Jinlong said.

Standard construction achieves three unprecedented

  While reconstructing the legal system of the ecological environment, the standard construction of the ecological environment is also accelerating, and the unprecedented labels of the "three" are enough to make its achievements shine.

  Standards systems are evolving at an unprecedented rate.

According to statistics, in less than ten years since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (November 8, 2012 to September 9, 2022), the state has issued 1,217 various types of ecological environment standards, accounting for the cumulative total of 50 years of ecological environment standards. 44% of the total; the provincial people's governments have filed 265 local environmental quality standards and pollutant discharge standards in accordance with the law, accounting for 77% of the cumulative total over the past 50 years.

  The leading role of environmental quality standards is unprecedented.

Bie Tao said that in the process of formulating the current ecological environment quality standards, the actual situation and development trend of my country's economy, society and ecological environment at that time were comprehensively considered, and compared and connected with the standards of developed countries and international organizations, it clarified the ecological environment for a long time. Environmental protection goals, with a certain advance, can lead and promote the improvement of environmental quality and the green transformation of economic and social development.

  It is worth noting that in the past ten years, the implementation of environmental quality standards has undergone fundamental and pivotal changes.

Although the "Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China" in 1988 and the "Regulations for the Implementation of the Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China" in 1990 have clearly listed environmental quality standards as mandatory standards, how to ensure their mandatory force is a long-term unsolved problem.

"Since the implementation of the "Ambient Air Quality Standards" in 74 cities in key areas in 2013, a series of effective measures have been taken from monitoring and evaluation to information disclosure, from target responsibility to assessment and inspection, so that environmental quality standards have truly played a leading role and promoted It's a long-term and important thing to accomplish this matter." Bie Tao said.

  The inverse effect of pollutant emission standards has never been seen before.

Over the past decade, the emission requirements of pollutant emission standards have gradually been in line with international standards.

For example, Bie Tao said that there are a total of 158 pollutant items stipulated in the current water pollutant discharge standards, which are generally consistent with the provisions of similar standards in the United States. quite.

In addition, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Air and Water Pollution has comprehensively strengthened the principle of "exceeding the standard is illegal", adding daily penalties, double penalties for units and individuals, and other penalties for exceeding the standard, and increasing penalties.

  "The formulation and implementation of the above-mentioned pollutant discharge standards has not only greatly reduced the discharge of major pollutants, but also forced domestic key industries to reach or even exceed the technical level of similar industries in developed countries, and promoted the technological progress of the industry and the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure." Bie Tao pointed out.

Breaking the situation where compensation reform is unreliable

  Another achievement in the construction of the rule of law in the ecological environment is reflected in the reform of the ecological environment damage compensation system.

  Once upon a time, 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.

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", proposing to pilot the ecological and environmental damage compensation system nationwide from 2018.

  The environmental damage compensation case of Ningxia Meili Paper Group Environmental Protection and Energy Conservation Co., Ltd. polluting the Tengger Desert, which has attracted widespread attention, has become a typical case in the reform process. For the first time, ecological benefits are used to offset damages, which innovates the way of compensation for ecological environmental damage.

  The reform has achieved obvious results, and the results have been upgraded to the basic legal content of the country in a timely manner, breaking the "unable to rely on" situation.

The Civil Code specifically sets up "Chapter VII Liability for Environmental Pollution and Ecological Damage" in the "Tort Liability Section", which centrally stipulates the liability for compensation for damage to the ecological environment and formally establishes a liability system for damages to the ecological environment.

In addition, laws such as the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution stipulate the content of compensation for damage to the ecological environment.

21 provinces including Fujian and Sichuan have clearly stipulated the compensation system for ecological environment damage in local regulations.

  The construction of relevant institutional systems has also shown a "blowout" growth visible to the naked eye.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in conjunction with relevant state agencies, has formulated and jointly issued the "Regulations on the Administration of Compensation for Ecological Environmental Damage", "Opinions on Several Specific Issues Concerning Promoting the Reform of the Compensation System for Ecological Environmental Damage", and the "Plan for the Reform of the Compensation System for Ecological Environmental Damage" and the division of key tasks of relevant departments "Administrative Measures for Compensation Funds for Ecological Environmental Damage (Trial)" and other institutional documents.

It issued technical documents such as the recommended methods for the appraisal and assessment of ecological environmental damage, and issued 6 national standards for appraisal and assessment of ecological and environmental damage together with the State Administration for Market Regulation, which initially covered all environmental elements.

According to statistics, all localities have formulated and issued 402 supporting documents on clue screening, appraisal and evaluation, negotiation procedures, fund management, etc. involved in the handling of compensation cases, effectively improving the operability of the system implementation.

  The most direct result is that the damaged ecological environment is effectively restored.

According to Bie Tao, by the end of 2021, a total of about 11,300 ecological and environmental damage compensation cases have been handled nationwide, involving a compensation amount of more than 11.7 billion yuan, promoting the restoration of more than 36.9557 million cubic meters of soil, 61.5522 million square meters of forest land, and 2.1388 million square meters of farmland. meters, 369 million cubic meters of surface water, 1.6663 million cubic meters of groundwater, 200,000 square meters of wetlands, and 89,842,500 tons of solid waste cleaned.

  Sun Jinlong pointed out that the ecological environment system should continuously improve the ability and level of using the rule of law thinking and the rule of law to promote the work of ecological environmental protection, and strive to build a beautiful China where man and nature coexist in harmony.