The spokesperson for the Shanghai municipal government released the city’s administration guidelines on “the State Council’s decision to implement scientific developments and the strengthening of environmental protection,” in written form on August 16. Shanghai will introduce stronger measures to boost environmental protection and to propel the sustainable development of the economy and society.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai should settle the framework in order to build an environmentally friendly city by 2010. The city should have, by then, an improved environmental infrastructure to lead the city to a more harmonious method of development. Pollution will then be effectively curbed to give the city a cleaner and safer environment. Supervisory and monitoring systems for the environment will continually improve to grant the city a more scientific-urban management focus. Environmental quality will be enhanced to make city life better.

According to the tasks assigned by the central government, as well as the city’s own plan on environmental protection in the 11th Five-Year Plan, the guidelines set up a series of environmental protection goals. By 2010, the city’s energy consumption for each unit of GDP should be 20 percent lower than that of the 10th Five-Year Plan period. The discharge of sulfur dioxide should be cut by 26 percent and be controlled to less than 380,000 tons. Sewage in urban areas should be processed by 80 percent, and 80 percent of the garbage should be processed to prevent pollution. The days of air quality above the “good” level should be higher than 80 percent throughout the year.

As for how to accomplish these goals, the guidelines listed detail the requirements.

The city will strictly implement the control of pollutant discharge. Authorities will ensure the fulfillment of the goal by specifying responsibilities, strengthening management and by enhancing environmental monitoring. The city will also issue licenses to control pollutant discharge. Companies without licenses will be banned from discharging pollutants. Licensed companies will not be allowed to discharge above their quota. Licenses cannot be issued to illegal projects.

Companies must report pollutant discharge, and environmental authorities must enhance the inspection of pollutants. Statistics authorities must incorporate the pollutant discharge data into economic and social development statistics.

The guidelines also require authorities to strengthen environmental appraisals and to strictly implement the review on the environmental perspective of project applications to prop up the sustainable development in society and the overall economy.

Regarding environment appraisals, the first step is to push forward the appraisal of plans and policies. The guidelines propose and improve the environment appraisal of plans on land use, industries, energy, water, traffic, urban construction, tourism and resources utilization. A demonstration of a policy’s influence on the environment should be carried out. The second step is to improve development in different areas. The city should speed up the readjustment of industrial structures in downtown and suburban areas. The city should step up efforts to improve environmental infrastructures in suburban areas and industrial parks, along with strengthening the protection of natural conservation areas, water source protection areas and environmentally sensitive areas.

The guidelines require authorities to specify the environmental requirement of project applications and to concentrate industrial facilities into industrial parks. Those industrial parks, which have substandard environmental protection facilities and discharge pollutants, with more than maximum volume, will be banned from launching new projects. Any new projects or existing ones, whether renovated or expanded, that fall short of waste discharge and energy consumption requirements, will not receive an approval.

As for the development of a recycling based economy, the guidelines lay emphasis in the reduction of energy consumption and waste discharge. Focusing mainly on increased efficiency of resources use, Shanghai should build a number of recycling economic zones or other facilities to lead enterprises to cleaner production. The idea to construct a resource saving and environment friendly society should be spread in companies and families. The city should introduce a mechanism to identify a product’s energy consumption level and influence on the environment. The government should adhere to green products while doing procurement. Authorities should intensify efforts to prevent excessive packaging in specific industries, including health-care products, cosmetics and food. The use of disposable items should be reduced to cut resource consumption.

The guidelines also specify six key areas in need of improvement. To guarantee a safer environment, the city should tighten the environmental protection and security inspection of water sources, strengthen the monitoring and management of radiation sources, and enhance its ability to cope with environmental emergencies and accidents. To better the water quality, the city should step up the construction of sewage processing plants and a network of sewage collection pipelines, along with the renovation of current waterways. To prevent air pollution, the city should pay attention to the desulphurization of power plants generating with coal, the pollution from motor vehicles, as well as air born dust. To prevent industrial pollution, the city should concentrate its efforts on improving environmental protection in Wujing Industrial Area, so pollution sources meet the requirements, and to phase out those companies causing heavy pollution. To improve the environmental protection in the countryside, the city should focus on monitoring and controlling pollution caused by people and agricultural activities. To raise the city’s level of environmentally friendly construction projects, the environment will be the priority in the construction of the World Expo Park and Chongming Island.

The guidelines also stressed that improvements need to be made on environmental laws and regulations, the need for better ways to direct the public with policies and an increased sense of responsibility to protect the environment, which would further boost environmental protection.

The city will continue to improve its environmental regulations to firmly clamp down on illegal behaviors that are endangering the environment. The government should budget for the investment in environmental protection, with the amount increasing year by year. The city will make taxation policies conducive to environmental protection, and as a result, adjust the prices of energy and water resources. Social capital should be more accessible to environmental industries, as part of efforts to speed up the construction of pollution alleviation facilities. An environment credit system will be built to increase enterprises’ sense of responsibility to protect the environment. The city will make environmental information more transparent to encourage the public to participate in improving the environment. Also, environmental protection will be an item included in the evaluation of an official’s achievements.

More specifically, Shanghai will put environmental protection in a more crucial position to contribute to the economic development and to balance economic developments. The city government considers environmental protection a strategy to optimize the economic structure, safeguard people’s health and to boost a harmonious society. The city will continue to expand investments in environmental protection, and employ legal, economic, technical and administrative measures to solve environmental problems. The city will keep to economic and natural rules, and strive to improve environmental protection efforts.