The External Communications Office of the

CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee this afternoon (September 27) held the fourth

media briefing of the Party Committee special-series press conferences on the

theme “forging ahead in a new journey and make contributions in a new era.”

Cheng Peng, Party Secretary and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of

Ecology and Environment, introduced the progress and achievements of Shanghai’s

ecology and environment work since the 18th National Congress of the Communist

Party of China, focusing on the theme of “resolutely fighting against pollution

and accelerating the construction of a beautiful Shanghai where humans and

nature coexist in harmony.” Xia Minglin, member of the Party Committee and

Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Agriculture and Rural

Affairs, Ruan Renliang, member of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of

the Shanghai Water Authority (Shanghai Oceanic Bureau), and Tang Jiafu, member

of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Shanghai Landscaping and City

Appearance Administrative Bureau, attended the press conference and answered

questions from reporters.

Since the

18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Shanghai has resolutely

implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee,

thoroughly studied and implemented Xi Jinping’s thoughts on ecological

civilization, and integrated the new development concept into the city’s

overall development strategy. The city explored deep integration and practice

of the two important concepts of “lucid waters and lush mountains are

invaluable assets” and “people’s cities.” Through the joint efforts of the

whole society, the city has realized the transition from making up for

shortcomings to improving quality, from targeted governance to comprehensive

governance, and from end-stage to whole-process prevention and control. The

phased goals of the tough battle of pollution prevention and control have been

fully achieved, the urban and rural environment has taken on a new look, and

the people’s satisfaction and sense of gain have been significantly improved.

In 2020, the report on the second-round central inspection on ecological and environmental

protection pointed out that “Shanghai has achieved remarkable results in the

construction of ecological civilization and ecological and environmental

protection, and it is at the forefront of the whole country.” In the assessment

of pollution prevention and control of various provinces and cities by the CPC Central

Committee, Shanghai has been rated excellent for two consecutive years, and

ranked first in the country in 2020.

In the past decade,

Shanghai has leveraged high-level leadership and prioritized system

construction to gradually build a grand environmental protection landscape for

the whole society. The city took the rolling implementation of a three-year

action plan for environmental protection as the starting point to address

prominent environmental problems in the process of industrialization,

urbanization and modernization in phases, while achieving remarkable results in

ecological and environmental protection and construction across society. Especially

since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC

Shanghai Municipal Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Government have prioritized

the construction of ecological civilization in the overall economic and social

development, established the leading group for the construction of ecological

civilization in Shanghai, and comprehensively strengthened the overall

leadership of the construction of ecological civilization and ecological and environmental

protection. The Responsibility List of Ecological and Environmental Protection

Work in Shanghai and the Work Regulations of Ecological and Environmental

Protection Supervision in Shanghai have been released. The city has carried out

evaluation of the effectiveness of the battle against pollution in various

districts, and the system of sharing the responsibility of the Party and

government for ecological and environmental protection and the system of “one

post and two responsibilities” have been continuously improved. The concept of “lucid

waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” has been deeply rooted in the

hearts and minds of the people, the citizens’ awareness of ecological

civilization has been significantly improved, and the general environmental

protection landscape of the whole society has basically been formed.

In the past decade,

Shanghai has insisted on treating both “symptoms” and “root causes” while

prioritizing the treatment of the latter. The city has paid more attention to

the prevention and control at the source through structural adjustment and

layout optimization. The city adhered to prioritizing evaluation in terms of yield

per mu, efficiency, energy consumption and environment, actively implemented

the carbon neutrality strategy, gave full play to the role of environmental

protection as driving force and catalysts, continuously stepped up adjustment

of the “four major structures” (energy, industry, transportation and

agriculture) and fostered new momentum for green and low-carbon development. Over

the past decade, more than 10,000 municipal-level industrial structure

adjustment projects have been completed, by ensuring efforts to address “five

violations” and ensure “four musts” (violations in land use, construction,

operation, sewage discharge and residence; Hidden safety hazards must be

eliminated, illegal and unlicensed buildings must be demolished, dirty and

messy phenomena must be rectified, and illegal operations must be banned). The Jinshan

area, Taopu, Nanda, Wujing and other key areas have accelerated green

transformation. The city has completed a reduction of 66.8 square kilometers of

low-efficiency construction land, with the land released mainly used for

ecological construction. Since 2010, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP

and energy consumption per unit of GDP in Shanghai have both dropped by more

than 50%. By the end of 2021, a total of 677,000 new energy vehicles have been

promoted, and the operating mileage of rail transit continued to rank first in

the world. The scale of green buildings has reached 289 million square meters,

and the adoption of prefabricated buildings has been leading the country.

In the past decade,

Shanghai has adhered to a people-oriented approach and prioritized practical

results, to continuously meet the growing needs of people for a beautiful

ecological environment. The focus of ecological and environmental protection

work has been keeping pace with the times, and gradually shifted from pollutant

emissions reduction to the improvement of environmental quality and the

enhancement of ecological service functions. The city adhered to clearing up

water for the people and returning the riversides to the people. By relying on

the implementation of the action plan to prevent and control water pollution,

improve water quality assessment, supervision and information disclosure

mechanisms, the city has comprehensively enhanced infrastructure capacity for

prevention and control of water pollution. In 2018, the black and odorous

rivers were basically eliminated, and in 2020, the inferior V-class water

bodies were basically eliminated, thus fundamentally solving river pollution.

In 2021, 80.6% of the main water bodies featured quality better than Class III,

which was the best level in history. The water quality of the four centralized

drinking water sources is stable and up to standard. The aquatic biodiversity

index and fish quantity of key rivers and lakes such as Huangpu River, Suzhou Creek

and Dianshan Lake are on the increase. The Huangpu River and the core urban section

of Suzhou Creek are fully connected, and the Suzhou Creek water tourism route has

been officially launched. The city has transformed the “industrial rust belt”

into the “life show belt”, turning black and smelly rivers to beautiful boat

routes. Thus, “One River, One Creek” has become a landmark scenery in Shanghai.

Efforts have been made to improve the air environment quality. There are more

crystal days, and blue sky and white clouds become the norm. In 2021, the

annual average concentration of PM2.5 reached 27 micrograms per cubic meter,

the lowest since records were available, a decrease of 56% compared with 62

micrograms per cubic meter in 2013. The city has achieved the target in the

14th Five-Year Plan period ahead of schedule, and people’s sense of gain on the

“blue sky” has been significantly enhanced. The city has adhered to efforts to

enable people to “eat safely and live a worry-free life” by striving to solve

soil problems that threaten the safety of agricultural products and the living

environment. The safe utilization rate of contaminated farmland and plots has

reached 100%, and soil environmental risks have been effectively managed and

controlled. The city has adhered to the concept of “people’s city” as ecological

space has been greatly improved. By the end of 2021, the forest cover rate

reached 19.4%, and the per capita park green space reached 8.8 square meters. The

ecological pattern of “rings, wedges, corridors, gardens and forests” has

basically been formed, and the city has become more leisurely and livable. Efforts

have been made to create a new model of mega-city in which humans and nature

coexist in harmony. The level of urban biodiversity has gradually recovered,

and wild animals such as raccoon dogs and aurora crows have become our

neighbors. During the inspection on estuary ecology in 2021, the Yangtze

finless porpoise, a national first-class protected animal known as the “giant panda

of the water”, was observed in the mouth of the Yangtze River.

In the past decade,

Shanghai has adhered to multiple-party co-governance and refined management,

and continued to improve the modernization level of urban environmental

governance. The city continued to enhance local legislation, formulated and

revised local regulations such as Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on

Environmental Protection, Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Prevention

and Control of Air Pollution, Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Protection

of Drinking Water Sources, issued over 30 local standards, promoted the reform

for the compensation system of ecological environment damage, advanced the

construction of ecological civilization with rule-of-law thinking and power,

and safeguarded the base line of ecological and environmental protection. The

city continued to leverage the market system to control pollution, by taking the

lead in implementing the third-party environmental pollution control pilot project

nationwide, and promoting the comprehensive transformation of pollution

discharge charges to environmental taxes. The national carbon emission rights

trading market was launched in Shanghai, and the Shanghai local carbon market

is the only pilot market where companies achieved 100% settlement for 8

consecutive years and transaction volumes of Chinese Certified Emission

Reduction (CCER) always ranked first in the country. The city has vigorously

developed green finance, and actively promoted the pilot projects of

biodiversity finance initiative (Biofin) and green supply chain. The Pudong New

Area has become one of the first batch of climate investment and financing

pilot zones in the country. The city fully implemented the reform of pollutant

discharge permit and environmental assessment, accelerated the implementation

of major projects, and magnified the advantageous effect of the reform of the

environmental assessment system in promoting economic growth. The city continued

to consolidate the main responsibility of corporates on environmental

governance and the supervision responsibility of the “minimum unit” at the

grassroots level. It actively explored social autonomy of grassroots

organizations, accelerated benign interaction between government governance

social adjustment and enterprise autonomy, and gave full play to the role of whole-process

people’s democracy in grassroots environmental governance.

In the past

decade, Shanghai has adhered to regional cooperation, joint protection and

governance, and co-building of a green and beautiful Yangtze River Delta. The

city firmly captured the important opportunity of the integration of the

Yangtze River Delta as a national strategy, closely followed the two key words

of “integration” and “high-quality”, established and improved an all-round

cooperation mechanism for ecological and environmental protection in the

Yangtze River Delta region, and promoted the collaborative prevention and

control of pollution in the Yangtze River Delta. The city promoted the

implementation of the “Yangtze River Delta Regional Ecological and Environmental

Joint Protection Plan”, while taking the lead in promoting regional early

warning and emergency response to heavy pollution weather, coordinated control

of diesel truck pollution, joint protection and management of key transboundary

water bodies, and establishment of a “white list” for the utilization and

disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. The city broke down the administrative

barriers by piloting and testing in the integrated demonstration zone, and

promoting system innovation that unifies regional ecological and environmental

protection standards, monitoring, and law enforcement (adopting a unified set

of standards to regulate ecological and environmental protection, a unified network

to oversee ecological and environmental monitoring and environmental protection,

and a unified measurement to implement effective ecological and environmental

supervision). It has basically realized the normal sharing of air quality

monitoring, forecast and early warning information in key cities within the

region.

Over the

past decade, under the guidance of Xi Jinping’s thought on ecological

civilization, Shanghai has initially embarked on a new path of modern

environmental governance that conforms to the characteristics and laws of a

megacity, demonstrates the characteristics of a modern socialist international

metropolis, and leads to a beautiful city.

Looking into

the future, Shanghai will adhere to green and low-carbon development, fight the

tough battle against pollution, and speed up the construction of a beautiful

home where humans and nature coexist in harmony. The 12th Congress of the CPC

Shanghai Municipal Committee put forward higher requirements for Shanghai’s

ecological civilization construction and ecological environmental protection

work. On September 5, the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Shanghai

Municipal Government issued the Implementation Opinions on Deepening the Battle

of Pollution Prevention and Control and Moving on a New Journey to Build a

Beautiful Shanghai. The opinions aimed to promote the formation of a “1+1+X”

pollution prevention and control system, by identifying eight special actions

on pollution prevention and control for water, air, and soil, and putting

forward a series of binding indicators. For example, the city’s PM2.5 annual

average concentration should be stably controlled below 30 micrograms per cubic

meter by 2025, and the ratio of days with good air quality should be more than

90%.

Shanghai

will further consolidate the ecological environment as the foundation of urban

development, make the green color the most attractive background color and the

warmest color for the city, and build Shanghai into a beautiful home with bluer

sky, greener space, cleaner water, and better living conditions where people

and nature can co-exist in harmony.