recently, the state development and reform commission issued the opinions on innovating and improving the price mechanism for promoting green development (hereinafter referred to as opinions), which clarified the direction of price reform in four aspects: sewage treatment, waste disposal, water saving, energy saving and environmental protection, and proposed that by 2020, china will basically be in favor of green development. the role of price mechanism and price policy system in promoting resource conservation and internalization of eco-environmental costs has been significantly strengthened. by 2025, the price mechanism that meets the requirements of green development will be improved and implemented in all aspects of society.
we should speed up the establishment and improvement of a resource and environment price mechanism that fully reflects the market supply and demand and the degree of scarcity of resources, reflects the ecological value and the cost of environmental damage, and improve the price policy conducive to promoting green development, incorporate the ecological environment cost into the economic operation cost, and leverage more social capital into the field of ecological environment protection. to promote resource conservation, ecological environment protection and pollution prevention and control, and promote the formation of a green development spatial pattern, industrial structure, production methods and lifestyles.
in the view of yue xiuhu, director-general of the price department of the national development and reform commission, the policy measures proposed in the opinion not only complement and perfect the existing green price policy, but also reform and innovate the price mechanism in relevant fields.
sewage treatment, differential mechanism benefits
water pollution control is one of the main battlefields of pollution prevention and control, and the market space has attracted the attention of the industry. the industry believes that with the deepening of the sewage treatment fee policy, huge investment in the industry will give rise to major investment opportunities, but also further deepen its market-oriented process, benefiting sewage treatment enterprises.
in recent years, china's urban sewage treatment industry has developed rapidly. according to the ministry of housing and urban-rural construction, in the first quarter of this year, urban sewage treatment plants across the country had treated more than 13.92 billion cubic meters of sewage, equivalent to 994 west lake waters in hangzhou.
"with the improvement of environmental protection standards, the cost of enterprise sewage treatment rises, sewage treatment fees are difficult to meet the needs of higher standards; township and rural sewage treatment facilities construction lags behind, sewage treatment collection rate is not high, and is not conducive to the improvement of rural living environment. according to the current policy, the concentration of pollutants in sewage discharged by different enterprises in the same area is different, but the same charging policy and standards are implemented. niu yubin, deputy director of the price department of the national development and reform commission, said at a news conference on innovation and improvement of the price mechanism for promoting green development.
in view of the troubles encountered in sewage treatment, the opinion revised and perfected the sewage treatment charge policy with the longest length, and put forward five policy measures. that is, to establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism of urban sewage treatment fees; to establish a differential charge mechanism for enterprise sewage discharge; to establish a charge mechanism compatible with sewage treatment standards; to explore the establishment of a payment system for sewage treatment farmers; and to improve the market-oriented formation mechanism of urban sewage treatment service fees.
as far as the establishment of differential charge mechanism for enterprise sewage discharge is concerned, niu yubin said that the key is to promote the pretreatment of enterprise sewage discharge and reduce pollutant discharge from the source. at the same time, local governments are encouraged to set different charging standards according to the types and concentrations of the main pollutants discharged by local enterprises or their environmental credit rating.
since 2003, jiaxing, zhejiang province, has made some explorations and attempts in differential charging mechanism to solve the dilemma of water environment damage caused by economic and social development. since the second half of 2003, the differential charge policy has been implemented for cod (chemical oxygen demand), and the differential charge policy has been implemented for four pollution factors, namely, ph value, suspended solids, total phosphorus and ammonia nitrogen, in october 2012, and good results have been achieved.
it is reported that since the implementation of this policy in october 2012, jiaxing has charged more than 520 million yuan, effectively compensating for the construction of sewage treatment projects and the normal operating costs of sewage treatment enterprises.
niu yubin said that the implementation of this policy forced enterprises to increase investment in environmental protection, achieve discharge standards, promote the elimination of backward production capacity and enterprise transformation and upgrading, the normal operation of sewage treatment enterprises was guaranteed, the water quality after treatment improved significantly.
solid waste treatment charging mechanism presents new highlights
as a relatively backward link in the development of public utility pricing mechanism, solid waste treatment charging mechanism has returned to the public view because of the fact that waste classification has once again become the focus of urban solid waste management. experts say that the emergence of differential economic stimulus is imminent.
at a press conference of the national development and reform commission on the innovation and improvement of the pricing mechanism for promoting green development, zhou peixue, deputy director of the pricing department of the national development and reform commission, said that the opinion further clarified the establishment and improvement of a nationwide solid waste treatment and charging mechanism covering costs and reasonable profits, and accelerated the establishment of an incentive and restraint charging mechanism. promote waste classification and reduction, recycling, harmless treatment, improve the policy of hazardous waste disposal fees.
it is worth mentioning that the opinion has two innovations in the charging policy for solid waste disposal.
zhou companion theory, one is to improve the classification and reduction of urban domestic waste incentive fee mechanism. we will actively promote the reform of the charge system for municipal solid waste disposal, implement waste metering and charging for users with complete supporting facilities and qualified conditions, and implement classified waste and mixed waste.
