Strategic Research on Environmental Protection in the Pearl River Delta

Author: Wu Shunze, Wang Jinnan, Zou Shoumin, et al.
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Publish Date: 2006-12-01
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Hu Jintao General Secretary, during his inspection of Guangdong Province in April 2003, put forward the requirements for Guangdong Province to "develop first, accelerate development, and coordinate development." The 9th Party Congress of Guangdong Province and the 2nd Plenary Session of the Provincial Party Committee determined the future goals: to build the Pearl River Delta into a sustainable development demonstration zone within 5 years, and to achieve a basic socialist modernization in the Pearl River Delta by 2010, creating a civilized development path with developed production, prosperous lives, and a sound ecological environment. Hu Jintao General Secretary's "Three Great" development requirements and Guangdong Province's determined goals have placed higher demands on the environmental protection work in Guangdong Province. On March 30, 2003, when Xie Zhenhua, Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, came to Guangdong for research, Zhang Dejiang, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee, proposed that the State Environmental Protection Administration and Guangdong Province cooperate to carry out environmental protection planning work for the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong Province, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region. Guangdong Province should strive to create new environmental advantages in the process of modernization.
To this end, in May 2003, the Guangdong Provincial People's Government and the State Environmental Protection Administration established an expert advisory group led by Secretary Zhang Dejiang, composed of a number of academicians and senior experts, a leading group headed by Minister Xie Zhenhua and Governor Huang Huahua, and a technical group for planning preparation, which included 9 scientific research institutions such as the China Environmental Planning and Research Institute. Under the guidance of the leading group and advisory group, the technical group conducted a survey and research for more than half a year and basically completed five thematic research reports by December 2003: "Environmental Scenario Forecast and Countermeasures for the Modernization Construction of the Pearl River Delta," "Ecological Protection and Ecological Industry Development Plan for the Pearl River Delta," "Water Pollution Prevention Plan for the Pearl River Delta," "Air Pollution Prevention Plan for the Pearl River Delta," and "Environmental Management Innovation and Capacity Building for the Pearl River Delta," as well as the "General Report on the Research of Environmental Protection Planning for the Pearl River Delta."
This research report is a systematic integration of the above five thematic reports, including six parts and 15 chapters: background, overall framework, optimizing regional spatial form, guiding sustainable economic development, strengthening environmental safety regulation, and mechanisms and policies. For specific content, please refer to the relevant thematic research reports. The content related to coastal marine environmental protection, radiation environmental protection, the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, and the broader triangle will be elaborated in detail in subsequent environmental protection planning reports for Guangdong Province, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, and other regions. Although Guangdong Province, especially the Pearl River Delta region, has made significant achievements in environmental protection, there are also serious and unavoidable problems. Over the past two decades, the Pearl River Delta has experienced rapid economic development, with a large influx of migrants, uncontrolled land management, scattered urban layouts, disordered industrial development, and a crude economic development model. The logical relationship between planning, environmental protection, and construction has been inverted, disconnecting economic development from environmental protection. Urbanization has lagged behind industrialization, environmental infrastructure construction is clearly insufficient, environmental supervision models and capabilities do not meet new situations and requirements, and composite, compressed, and cumulative environmental problems have become increasingly prominent. Environmental capacity resources have been overdrawn. The Pearl River Delta has not yet achieved environmental well-being while its economy has basically reached the requirements of sub-modernization. Among the three pillars of sustainable development in the Pearl River Delta, resource and environment have become a weakness. Overall, it presents an underdeveloped state under the crisis of modernity and restricts the improvement of the overall competitiveness of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration and regional sustainable development. According to the economic development scenario forecast, the future Pearl River Delta will see a significant increase in pollutant generation compared to the current situation, placing enormous pressure and arduous tasks on environmental protection. The environmental safety situation is severe, and it is necessary to address past shortfalls, achieve comprehensive environmental well-being, prevent new environmental problems from future economic development, and further meet the environmental goals of modernization construction. Therefore, by 2020, environmental protection in the Pearl River Delta must implement the "11315" project, which includes adhering to one guiding principle, achieving one overall goal, advancing three strategic lines, implementing a set of integrated policies, and completing five major projects, summarized as the eight-character principle of "orderly, sustainable, safe, and innovative."
One Guiding Principle: People-centered, environment-first. The scarcity of environmental and resources in the Pearl River Delta has become increasingly prominent. In the future development process, it is necessary to consistently adhere to the new development concept and performance appraisal perspective, emphasizing people-centered and harmonious development between humans and nature, taking environmental quality as the basic standard for all work within the region, and improving people's living standards and environmental quality as the purpose. This requires significantly raising the standards and requirements for sustainable development in the Pearl River Delta and changing the performance appraisal mechanism that substitutes GDP growth for development. Coordinate and protect proactively, guide development, and no longer adopt the past development model that broke environmental "red lines" and focused on short-term economic benefits. Support, regulate, and guide sustainable socio-economic development through the sustainable use of the environment. Increase investment in environmental protection, strengthen the macro-control role of the government in environmental protection, and structurally reform and optimize the environmental management system. Environmental protection should gradually transition from a "small government, large society" model to a "strong government, large society" model to address market failures and create new environmental advantages.
One Overall Goal: Strive to achieve sustainable environmental modernization and build the Pearl River Delta into a comprehensive and coordinated national sustainable development demonstration zone. Among these, the period up to 2010 is the key stage for breakthroughs, with an investment of 440 billion yuan (3.5% of GDP), which will basically solve environmental pollution problems and preliminarily establish the Pearl River Delta as a national sustainable development demonstration zone marked by an environmental protection model urban agglomeration. The period up to 2020 is the stage for consolidation and improvement, with an investment of 1 trillion yuan (3% of GDP), forming a basic regional ecological safety pattern, achieving international-level resource utilization efficiency, gradually improving the circular economy, and establishing all cities as national ecological cities. The Pearl River Delta will be built into a world-class metropolitan belt with a well-structured and orderly protected layout, an internationally influential green manufacturing base, and an optimized and sustainable socio-economic environmental complex system.
Three Strategic Lines: Environmental protection must complete three strategic tasks: optimizing regional spatial form, developing a circular economy, and preventing and controlling pollution. (1) Implement the red-line regulation strategy to optimize spatial form: Strictly protect and prohibit development for 12.13% of the land in the Pearl River Delta, implement controlled protection and utilization for 25.89% of the land, nurture, restore, and protect important sensitive ecological functional areas, establish a regional ecological structure of "six zones, six cores, sixteen channels, and eighteen nodes," protect water and air-sensitive areas, and limit the scale of socio-economic activities in areas with overdrawn environmental capacity, changing the current densely developed situation in the Pearl River Delta and forming a metropolitan belt spatial pattern consistent with ecological requirements. (2) Implement the green-line enhancement strategy to develop a circular economy: Take the ecological transformation of industries as the core of socio-economic civilization transformation, adjust and optimize the structure, change the economic growth model of high input, high consumption, and high pollution, and increase the ecological efficiency of technology by more than four times in the next 20 years. By 2010 and 2020, reduce unit GDP material consumption and energy consumption to half and one-quarter of the current level, respectively, and reduce unit GDP pollutant emission indicators to one-third and one-sixth of the current level, respectively. Guide the establishment of sustainable economic development models and consumption patterns, improve development quality, free the environment from the pressure of economic development, and form an internationally influential green manufacturing base. (3) Implement the blue-line construction strategy to ensure environmental safety: Focus on eliminating water pollution and restoring water ecology, treat the east bank, prevent the west bank, prioritize the south, and protect the north, making the pollution control of river network areas the top priority. Adhere to the principle of urban-rural integration, adjust the water intake and discharge pattern, and comprehensively combat water pollution. Implement all desulfurization plans and requirements, reduce the frequency of acid rain by 20 percentage points, lower the concentration of inhalable particulate matter, and actively combat nitrogen oxide pollution and secondary pollution. While addressing past environmental shortfalls, prevent new environmental problems and completely change the lagging situation of regional environmental infrastructure construction, restoring a clean environment with clear waters, blue skies, and fertile land, building a national environmental protection model urban agglomeration and ecological urban agglomeration, and increasing development potential.
A Set of Integrated Policies: Focus on solving issues of comprehensive decision-making, regional coordination, management systems, economic measures, public participation, and capacity building. Based on environmental protection legislation, structurally reform and optimize the environmental management system, establish the Pearl River Delta Sustainable Development Committee (Working Group), implement comprehensive decision-making and regional coordination, elevate the status and management capabilities of environmental protection departments, directly manage environmental supervision departments, and gradually achieve vertical management of environmental protection departments at city, county, and district levels. Establish an environmental management system led by the government, advanced by the market, and participated in by the public.
Five Major Projects: Invest 122.6 billion yuan to construct integrated urban-rural sewage treatment projects, regional ecological safety barrier projects, power plant desulfurization projects, solid waste disposal and utilization projects, and environmental supervision, monitoring, early warning, and emergency projects, laying a solid foundation for the environmental infrastructure of regional sustainable development.