What is the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permit?

Liu Zhiquan, director of the Environmental Impact Assessment and Emission Management Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said at a regular press conference in July of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently that the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits will be fully implemented

What is the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permit? Why does my country's pollutant discharge permit implement "one certificate" management? What's the point? How is the work going? Our reporter interviewed Zou Shiying, deputy director of the Environmental Engineering Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment

What is the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permit?

To understand the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits, we must first understand the overall design of the pollutant discharge permit system

"The pollutant discharge permit system mainly includes five aspects

The first is to link and integrate relevant environmental management systems, promote the linking of environmental impact assessment systems, total pollutant control systems for enterprises and institutions, emission rights trading, environmental protection taxes, environmental statistics and other systems to solve the problem of multiple sets of data and repeated declarations

The second is to implement classified management of pollutant discharge units.

The third is to implement "one-certificate" management.

The fourth is to establish and improve the information management system, and build a unified national pollution discharge permit management information platform to support the application, issuance and daily supervision of permits, and realize "let data run more, let enterprises run less or even not run.

The fifth is to strengthen environmental supervision and law enforcement.

It can be seen that the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits is an important part of the overall design of the pollutant discharge permit system

Zou Shiying explained that the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits is to integrate the requirements of an enterprise's pollutant discharge control into the pollutant discharge permit to achieve "full linkage" of multiple systems; The environmental management requirements for elements such as waste gas and solid waste are included in the emission permit according to law, and the comprehensive permit of "all elements" is promoted; the requirements for emission units under different periods and different environmental quality goals should be included in the emission permit, and the focus of supervision should be clarified.

Why implement the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permit? How is the work going?

According to the Regulations on the Administration of Pollution Discharge Permits, the pollutant discharge permit is the main basis for the supervision of the ecological environment of the pollutant discharging units

Zou Shiying said that the pollutant discharge permit is the only administrative permit for the discharge of pollutants during the operation of fixed pollution sources, and the pollutant discharge permit is "a document for enterprises to abide by the law, a basis for government supervision, and a platform for social supervision.

So, why does our country implement the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits?

Zou Shiying explained to reporters that China's promotion of "one-license" management of pollutant discharge permits is the "cornerstone" of integrating various systems for the management of fixed pollution sources, so that all environmental protection requirements put forward by laws and regulations on an enterprise can be integrated into one permit, allowing information Sharing data on an efficient and unified platform is conducive to strengthening the ability of evidence-based supervision and law enforcement, consolidating the responsibility of polluters, reducing the burden on enterprises and institutions, and integrating the scattered ecological environment management systems into "source prevention, process control, and damage compensation.

At present, what work has my country done to implement the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits? Zou Shiying introduced five main tasks

The first is to establish and improve the legal system for multi-factor pollution discharge permits.

The second is to focus on building a system of pollutant discharge permit regulations and technical specifications
.
In 2021, the "Regulations on the Administration of Pollution Discharge Permits" will be issued and implemented, which provides the fundamental compliance for the application, issuance and supervision of pollutant discharge permits
.
The "List of Fixed Pollution Source Pollutant Discharge Permit Classification Management (2019 Edition)" was revised and released, and the pollutant discharge units and management categories were clearly included in the pollutant discharge permit
.
Published 75 technical specifications for industrial pollutant discharge permits, actively explored the incorporation of solid waste into the management of pollutant discharge permits in accordance with the law, issued 1 special technical specification for industrial solid waste pollutant discharge permits, and initially built a 1.
0 version of the pollutant discharge permit technical specification system
.

The third is to achieve full coverage of fixed pollution sources across the country
.
As of the end of March 2022, the pollutant discharge permit management platform has included 3.
2928 million fixed pollution sources into the scope of pollutant discharge permit management, of which 357,100 pollutant discharge permits have been issued and 2,929,200 pollutant discharge registrations have been issued.
All are included in the scope of ecological environment management
.

The fourth is to promote the establishment of a fixed pollution source supervision system centered on the pollutant discharge permit system
.
Important documents such as the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of a Stationary Pollution Source Supervision System Centered on the Pollutant Discharge Permit System" and "The Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for Environmental Assessment and Pollution Permitting Work Implementation Plan" were issued, and actively promoted pollution discharge permits and environmental assessment, total volume, and environmental statistics.
The connection and integration of environmental management systems such as monitoring, law enforcement and supervision will provide important support for the in-depth fight against pollution and the high-quality development of the economy
.

Fifth, strengthen the information management of fixed pollution sources
.
Build and stably operate a national pollution discharge permit management information platform, undertake the national pollution discharge permit application, issuance and daily supervision, online filing by enterprises, online approval by the ecological environment department, dynamic inquiry, data submission, report submission, etc.
are all completed on the same platform ; Preliminarily completed the preliminary version of the national electronic map of pollutant discharge units, forming a national "one map"; researched and formulated the "Technical Specification for Two-dimensional Code Marking of Pollutant Discharge Outlets of Pollutant Discharge Units", and guided Hebei, Shanghai and other places to carry out pilot projects of sewage outlet informatization.
A single QR code records information such as pollution discharge permits, environmental monitoring, and supervision and law enforcement, and promotes "one-certificate" supervision
.

How will the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits work in the future?

The reporter learned from a series of press conferences on the theme of "This Decade of China" held not long ago that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will take the pollutant discharge permit system as the core, actively connect various fixed pollution source environmental management systems, and comprehensively promote the "one certificate" management.
, and strive to build a new law enforcement pattern in which enterprises discharge pollutants with licenses, the government supervises according to law, and the society jointly supervises
.

The main goal of the "14th Five-Year Plan for Environmental Impact Assessment and Pollution Permit Work Implementation Plan" issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in April proposed that the core system of pollutant discharge permits should be further stabilized, and the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits was fully implemented
.

In the future, in what areas will the "one-certificate" management of my country's pollutant discharge permit continue to make efforts? Zou Shiying said that, first of all, it is necessary to continue to promote the full coverage of environmental management elements.
It is recommended to continue to promote the incorporation of industrial solid waste into the management of pollution discharge permits in accordance with the law.
Ecological and environmental departments in various regions should strengthen publicity, training, assistance and guidance, and strengthen the industrial solid waste in pollution discharge permits.
The quality of waste filling; further explore and study the management content and implementation path of incorporating environmental noise into the pollution discharge permit, and promote the inclusion of industrial noise in the pollution discharge permit in accordance with the law
.

Second, promote the linking of pollutant discharge permit content with environmental quality improvement requirements.
It is suggested that the calculation method of linking pollutant discharge permit emissions with environmental quality can be explored through research work on the formulation and revision of technical specifications for pollutant discharge permits in some key industries
.

Finally, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of informatization, and it is recommended to further optimize and improve the connection between the pollutant discharge permit platform and mobile law enforcement, self-monitoring and other platform systems, promote the precision and efficiency of supervision and law enforcement, and achieve data exchange
.
Use big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other new technologies to promote the application of pollutant discharge permit data
.

It is an inevitable requirement to comprehensively improve the modernization level of ecological environment governance to implement the "one-certificate" management of pollutant discharge permits and use the pollutant discharge permit as an "identity card" for legal production of enterprises
.
At present, the battle of pollution prevention and control has entered the stage of "deeply fighting".
Facing the arduous task of promoting the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and realizing the improvement of ecological and environmental quality from quantitative to qualitative changes, the work of pollutant discharge permit still has a long way to go.

.
(Trainee reporter Zhang Yunchen)