China News Service, Taiyuan, September 24 (Yu Yutong) On September 24, the Propaganda Department of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Information Office of the Shanxi Provincial People's Government held the 16th press conference in the series themed "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan" (exclusive to the Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment).
Press conference scene. Photo courtesy of Shanxi Provincial Government Information Office
At the press conference, Sun Wei, deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, introduced that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the province's comprehensive ambient air quality index dropped from 5.18 to 3.73, a decrease of 28%. The improvement ranked among the top in the country, and 11 districts and cities have completely withdrawn from the bottom ten of the country's 168 key cities. But he also admitted frankly that the current structural, root-cause, and trend pressures on Shanxi's ecological and environmental protection have not been fundamentally alleviated, and the turning point for environmental air quality improvement from quantitative to qualitative changes has not yet arrived. The "15th Five-Year Plan" is a critical period for achieving fundamental improvement.
During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanxi will adhere to environmental protection for the people, solidly promote the construction of beautiful blue skies, focus on promoting the transformation and upgrading of industry, energy, and transportation structures, strengthen precise and scientific management of air pollution, and promote comprehensive improvements in air quality.
In terms of industrial structure, Shanxi will strictly control project access, curb the blind development of "two high" projects, eliminate backward production capacity in an orderly manner in accordance with the law, further promote the rectification of traditional industrial clusters, and continuously increase the proportion of advanced production capacity in traditional advantageous industries.
In the energy field, we will further promote the energy revolution, coordinate the clean and efficient utilization of coal, the development of new energy and clean energy, accelerate the replacement of coal-fired boilers and furnaces with clean energy, and actively and steadily promote the clearing of loose coal in plain areas.
In terms of transportation, we will accelerate the promotion of clean transportation in key industries such as thermal power, steel, coal, coking, non-ferrous metals, and cement, and build a city's logistics and distribution system of "external integration, internal distribution, and green transportation". By 2030, we will strive to achieve 85% clean transportation in key industries and 50% clean transportation in other key vehicle-using units.
In terms of pollution control in key industries, the environmental protection performance "Creating A to B" campaign will be used as a guide, and through market, price, financial and other policy mechanisms, the endogenous motivation of enterprises to improve their performance levels will be stimulated. By the end of the "15th Five-Year Plan", we will strive to achieve 50% of the number of A-level, B-level and leading enterprises.
In terms of non-point source control, we will combine the removal of blockage with the strengthening of scientific management and control of straw, the "five dusts" unified treatment to improve the level of refined dust control, strengthen the investigation and rectification of oil smoke and odor, and strive to solve the atmospheric environmental problems around the people.
Atmospheric control is an important part of the construction of beautiful Shanxi. Wang Wenbao, Party Secretary and Director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, said at the press conference that Shanxi will always take the people's expectations for a better ecological environment as its goal, promote the comprehensive improvement of the province's ecological environment quality, and lay a solid ecological foundation for striving to write a new chapter in promoting Chinese-style modernization in the Three Shanxi Provinces.
