As a municipality directly under Chinese central government, Tianjin was the first city in China that issued the local comprehensive standard on industrial VOC emission. However, it has been more than one and a half years now and Tianjin government hasn’t issued any charging standards. While in the meantime, Beijing, Hunan, Jiangsu and some other provinces all implemented their own charging standards. It is partially because Tianjin is a traditional industrial city and the petroleum industry, coating industry, medical industry, rubber industry and other industries that produce great VOC emission all play vital roles in Tianjin’s economics and have strong lobbying power. Charging for VOC emission will have a great impact on these industries and both the government and the industries needed time for research and preparation. After investigation and debate, Tianjin government announced that the VOC emission will start being charged from May 1st 2016. However, the policy will initially only target the petroleum industry and packaging and printing industry.
Similar to the charging standards of Beijing and Hunan Province, Tianjin also adopts a differential charge system. The charge imposed on enterprises is based on emission concentration and the total emission levels. But there are some differences in the detailed charges:
The charging standard is 10 RMB/kg, rather than 20 RMB/kg in Beijing. This number is relatively low, considering the importance of the heavy industries in Tianjin
For enterprises whose emission concentration is below 50% of the national or local emission limit (including 50%), the charge will be halved.
For enterprises whose emission concentration is higher than stipulated emission limit, or whose overall emission amount is higher than the stipulated limit, the charge will be doubled.
For enterprises whose emission concentration is higher than stipulated emission limit and the overall emission amount is higher than the stipulated limit at the same time, the charge will be tripled. This is a brand new requirement that no other provinces or cities have adopted before and makes the highest charge for VOC emission up to 30 RMB/kg. Although quantitatively it’s not as high as the biggest charge in Beijing which is 40 RMB/kg, it makes enterprises with increased emission condition pay up to 6 times the price compared with those with less emission. Undoubtedly it will provide a strong incentive for the enterprises to strive for less emission.
For enterprises whose production process or products are designated to be phased out, the charge will be doubled. This is also an innovative measure that hasn’t been seen in the charging policies of other provinces and cities. The policies in other areas can be regarded as emission oriented. More emission, higher charge. While this article is product oriented. It means that for enterprises manufacturing products that should be phased out or using outdated production lines, even if its emission concentration or overall emission amount is below the emission limit, it will still have to pay more for VOC emission. This is another incentive for enterprises to update the production line and use advanced techniques. In the long term, it will also reduce the VOC emission.
The collected fund will be put in a special fund for environmental protection. Although Tianjin is not among the first provinces and cities that charge for VOC emission, its policy reveals some creative and thoughtful ideas and is bound to be followed by other local governments.
