On October 15th, 2020, the China Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued the draft [1] of 2020-2021 Autumn and Winter Action Plan for Comprehensive Atmospheric Pollution Management in Yangtze River Delta Region (hereinafter referred to as “Action Plan”) and solicited feedback from relevant units. Yangtze River Delta region mainly consists of cities of Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. For key air pollution control regions in the northern part of China, the draft action plan was released on September 28th, 2020. (ChemLinked News)
According to the Action Plan, local administrations will fasten the implementation of industrial structure adjustment, and focus on the comprehensive management of chemical parks. For VOCs management, instruction will be provided for enterprises with outstanding problems to formulate rectification plans, detail requirements are specified in the 2020 Action Plan for VOCs Management [2]. The Action Plan also emphasizes regional cooperation and draws up a comprehensive management platform for regional ecological environment big data. To encourage enterprises to take the initiative to strengthen air pollution control measures, the grading system and differentiated emergency emission reduction requirements will also be conducted.
To help local ecology and environment administrations conduct differentiated management for enterprises in key industries and formulate emergency emission reduction measures during heavy pollution weather, MEE issued the Technical Guidance for Key Industries to Formulate Emergency Emission Reduction Measures during Heavy Pollution Weather on June 29, 2020. Indicators for sorting enterprises of key industries into the “A, B, C, D” 4 grades and different reduction measures for enterprises in different grades are detailed in the Guidance. In short, enterprises with poor performance in daily air pollutant treatment are very likely to face mandatory production cuts or could even be required to stop production when there is evidence for heavy pollution weather.
