After China Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) issued the Pilot Measures on VOC Emission Charge in June 2015, more and more provinces and cities have carried out their own local charge standards for VOC emission. Shanghai was among the first of them and issued the pilot measures in December 2015, just two months after the MEP Pilot Measures took effect in October 2015.
Compared with MEP’s pilot measures which only cover two industries (petroleum industry and packaging and printing industry), Shanghai’s pilot measures affects more industries. 10 more major industries fall under the scope of the measures, including the ship building industry and automobile industry. In order to ease the huge burden that the measures will impose on Shanghai industries, the measures adopt a creative 3-stage approach:
First stage starts from Oct 1st 2015. Petroleum industry, packaging and printing industry, coating and ink industry, automobile industry and ship building industry will be the first industries charged during this stage. The charge standard of this stage is 10 RMB/kg, which is lower than that of Beijing’s and the same with that of Tianjin’s.
Second stage starts from Jul 1st 2016. Industrial coating industry and some minor aspects under petroleum and automobile industries are added into the scope. The charge standard of this stage is 15 RMB/kg.
Third stage starts from Jan 1st 2017. All other industries will be covered, including rubber industry, wood processing industry, furniture industry, medical industry and electronic industry. The charge standard of this stage is the highest 20 RMB/kg.
Similar to the charge standards of other provinces and cities, Shanghai also adopts a differential charge standard:
The charge is doubled for:
Enterprises that haven’t treated the waste gases properly
Enterprises whose waste gas treatment equipment don’t function properly
Enterprises whose emission exceeds the emission limit
The charge is halved for the enterprises that meet the following criteria at the same time:
The waste gases are treated properly
The emission concentration is no higher than 50% of the emission limit
Haven’t been penalized by environmental authorities in the current year
Enterprises have been busy coping with the charge policy. Many of them are already in the process of improving production techniques and adopting more advanced waste gas treatment equipment. Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau uses a suburban coating factory as a case study to highlight the administrative process associated with VOC emission charges. The factory started to improve their waste gas equipment with catalytic oxidation methods and the total cost was estimated to be up to 2 million RMB. After the improvement project was completed, the factory is expected to lower its VOC emission by up to 78%, which equates to 91 tons per year. After Jan 1st 2017, the charging standard will be 20 RMB/kg. So in the third stage of VOC charge, the improvement project is expected to save 1.8 million RMB of VOC emission charge for the factory every year. This is a very positive example clearly showing that the adoption of advanced techniques is beneficial for both the industry and the environment under current policies.
There are less than 2 months until the second stage of VOC charging begins. The second stage will end at the end of 2016. Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau estimates that the total charge in 2016 will be 800 million RMB. When it comes into the third stage after Jan 1st 2017, the charge standard will be higher than 2016 and there will be more industries subject to the charge. However, the Bureau estimates that the total charge in 2017 will be around 600 million, less than 2016. This figure is based on the expectation that a lot of the enterprises will have finished the VOC emission improvement projects by then and the total emission in Shanghai will be lowered by a remarkable percentage.
