Recently, the municipal Party committee and government held a mobilization meeting for ecological civilization and urban-rural environmental construction, focusing on tackling four major urban environmental "stubborn problems": air pollution, sewage, garbage, and illegal construction.
Guo Jinlong, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, emphasized at the meeting that Beijing will mobilize the strength of the entire society to deeply advance the capital's ecological civilization construction, making Beijing’s skies bluer, land greener, and water cleaner. He also required that five key areas of work be prioritized in the future.
Environmental construction faces new challenges in Beijing
Guo Jinlong stressed that we must be determined to address both symptoms and root causes, adopt comprehensive measures, and coordinate efforts to make Beijing’s environment more beautiful and people’s lives more comfortable, contributing to the national goal of building a “Beautiful China.”
Guo Jinlong pointed out that Beijing also faces some new situations, problems, and challenges in ecological civilization and urban-rural environmental construction. These are mainly reflected in: rapid population growth, a swift increase in the number of motor vehicles, increasingly tight resource constraints, and severe challenges to the carrying capacity of ecological environments and public service facilities. In addition, influenced by meteorological conditions and Beijing’s geographical environment, among other factors, the public still has many complaints about air quality and the ecological environment, and expects greater improvements.
Eliminating “stubborn problems” to show the public new changes
Guo Jinlong stated that five key areas of work will be prioritized in the future.
First, strengthened overall planning and top-level design are essential. Currently, we must focus on prominent issues of great concern to the public, such as air quality, sewage, garbage, and illegal construction. We need to plan holistically, manage comprehensively, prioritize key areas, implement step-by-step, and ensure the public continuously sees new changes.
Second, management systems must be innovated. In line with administrative management reform, we should promote the integration of functions, encourage resource sharing, resolve issues of overreach, misalignment, and gaps, form a cohesive management force, and enhance the effectiveness of duty fulfillment.
Third, the investment and financing system must be innovated.
Fourth, reliance on technological innovation is essential.
Fifth, strong support from central government agencies and stationed Beijing military units is essential. It is necessary to further establish and improve mechanisms for information communication and work coordination, jointly studying and resolving major issues in the capital’s ecological environment construction.
In addition, the organizational department must further refine the cadre evaluation mechanism, incorporating ecological environment construction as an important assessment indicator, and further establish and improve the ecological environment indicator system, monitoring system, and evaluation system. The discipline inspection and supervision departments must strengthen oversight of the implementation of major ecological environment projects, improve the accountability system for ecological environment protection, and hold those accountable who fail to implement tasks effectively or perform their duties.
■ Deployment
Sewage and garbage treatment to receive around 90 billion yuan over three years
Wang Anshun emphasizes determination to tackle both symptoms and root causes, advancing the capital’s ecological civilization and urban-rural environmental construction
Beijing News (Reporter Ma Li) — “All districts, departments, and units across the city must act with the urgency and sense of responsibility of being ‘unable to sit, sleep, or eat at ease,’ to ensure continuous and significant progress,” said Wang Anshun, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor, yesterday at the mobilization meeting for ecological civilization and urban-rural environmental construction. He emphasized the need to be determined, tackle both symptoms and root causes, and advance the capital’s ecological civilization and urban-rural environmental construction. Over the next three years, Beijing will invest more than 100 billion yuan in garbage, sewage, and afforestation.
Tasks to tackle the “four stubborn problems” must be completed within set deadlines
“Since the beginning of this year, due to various factors, frequent smoggy weather has occurred in Beijing, with multiple instances lasting over four days, drawing high-level attention from the central government and widespread concern both domestically and internationally,” said Wang Anshun.
Wang Anshun said that since the beginning of this year, special studies have been conducted on deepening the treatment of air pollution, household waste, and sewage, strengthening urban-rural environmental construction, and advancing the demolition of illegal constructions and crackdowns on illicit activities. Clear action plans and targets have been set for the next three years.
Wang Anshun said that all districts, departments, and units must carefully review the tasks set in the three-year action plan according to their responsibilities, develop specific work plans, clarify goals and requirements, make “military-style commitments,” work backward from deadlines, and complete the tasks within the set time.
Lagging environmental infrastructure is a bottleneck in governance
Wang Anshun emphasized that inadequate environmental infrastructure is currently the main bottleneck in garbage and sewage treatment. Wherever environmental infrastructure falls under a district or county’s jurisdiction, that district or county bears unquestionable responsibility, and must ensure smooth implementation of the plans. While tapping into the potential of existing facilities, areas such as urban-rural fringe zones must not use insufficient or inadequate facilities as excuses for pollution. For newly developed areas, environmental infrastructure must be a prerequisite, planned and built simultaneously—no excuses later, no regrets left behind.
Wang Anshun said that preliminary estimates show that over the next three years, sewage and garbage treatment will require 84.8 billion yuan in investment; afforestation of 1 million mu (approximately 66,667 hectares) in plain areas will require nearly 30 billion yuan. Just these three items alone call for investment exceeding 100 billion yuan. Such a large amount of funding necessitates actively exploring effective ways for social forces to participate in environmental construction.
Wang Anshun stated that many problems are identified at the grassroots level, so a reward mechanism for public reporting should be established, encouraging citizens to directly report environmental issues around them, enabling early detection and timely resolution.