The Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Implementation Plan for the Full Implementation of the Pollutant Discharge Permit System"

In order to implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and promote the full implementation of the pollutant discharge permit system, on November 4, 2024, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Implementation of the Pollutant Discharge Permit System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan").

The release of the "Implementation Plan" is an important reform measure to implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and comprehensively promote the construction of a beautiful China, which is of great significance to promoting the modernization of the ecological environment governance system and governance capacity. The "Implementation Plan" closely follows the goal of improving the quality of the ecological environment, plans to fully implement the reform of the pollutant discharge permit system, and continues to promote the reform of the pollutant discharge permit system.

The "Implementation Plan" proposes an implementation path for the construction of the core system of pollutant discharge permits. The Implementation Plan focuses on the improvement of ecological and environmental quality, focuses on pollutant emission control, promotes the further connection and integration of the environmental management system of fixed pollution sources in depth and breadth, proposes the connection path between environmental impact assessment, total control, self-monitoring, ecological environment law enforcement, ecological environment statistics, environmental protection tax and other systems and the pollutant discharge permit system, and implements the fixed pollution source supervision system with the pollutant discharge permit system as the core.

The "Implementation Plan" clarifies the path to deepen the reform of the pollutant discharge permit system.  The "Implementation Plan" is based on the premise of comprehensive permit management, and clearly proposes to promote the inclusion of industrial noise, industrial solid waste, and marine engineering in the management of pollutant discharge permits in accordance with the law by improving the system of laws and regulations and standards, optimizing the pollutant discharge permit management system, and exploring the path of incorporating groundwater pollution prevention and control requirements, electromagnetic radiation, and ammonia emissions from livestock and poultry breeding into the management of pollutant discharge permits in accordance with the law, so as to realize the coordinated treatment of multiple pollutants from fixed pollution sources, and achieve full coverage of pollutant discharge units and environmental management elements. Full coverage of emission control.

The "Implementation Plan" consolidates the "one-certificate" management path of fixed pollution sources. The "Implementation Plan" uses "one certificate" management as a means to focus on the tripartite responsibilities of pollutant discharge units, management departments, and the public, and promote the construction of an environmental governance responsibility system. From the level of pollutant discharge units, consolidate the main responsibilities of pollutant discharge units to independently apply, self-commit, self-monitor, record, report, and disclose, and promote pollutant discharge units to build an environmental management system based on pollutant discharge permits. From the level of management departments, strengthen the joint supervision, resource sharing and information exchange of pollutant discharge permits, environmental monitoring and environmental law enforcement, innovate information supervision methods, and improve the level of intelligent management. From the public level, by promoting environmental compliance and integrity information sharing mechanisms, build an environmental credit supervision system to protect the right of public supervision.

Source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment