Policy Digest

New targets set for waste disposal facilities

China will strengthen efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of urban environmental infrastructure in an effort to reduce pollution and carbon emissions, according to a guideline jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and three other ministries.

Published on Feb 9, the guideline stated that environmental infrastructure plays a significant supportive role in winning the national battle against pollution, improving the environment and ensuring a better life for people.

It sets a target of establishing a system to integrate, monitor and supervise facilities responsible for disposing of sewage, solid, hazardous and medical waste by 2025. An efficient, comprehensive, intelligent, green, and safe modern environmental infrastructure system will also be set up by 2030.

According to the guideline, authorities will work quickly to fill existing shortcomings in terms of sewage collection, treatment and recycling, household garbage classification and disposal, the construction of facilities that dispose of solid waste, and national capacity to dispose of hazardous and medical waste.

For example, the guideline plans an increase of 20 million cubic meters per day in the sewage-disposal capacity of cities and towns by 2025, while the handling capacity of household garbage is envisaged as reaching 700,000 metric tons per day.

The guideline said that big data, cloud computing and other digital technologies should be fully utilized to establish an intelligent disposal system for urban waste, and a smart management system for environmental infrastructure facilities.

While efforts should be made to speed up the creation of a platform for managing information about medical waste nationwide, online real-time monitoring of pollutant discharge and environmental quality should also be strengthened.

The guideline highlighted the decisive role played by the market in allocating resources, saying that an efficient, standard, fair and open market environment should be created by removing unreasonable barriers and restrictions and avoiding unhealthy competition.

The guideline also welcomed the participation of professional, third-party environmental governance contractors in pollution control.

Eco-farms herald new direction for agriculture

China plans to build more eco-farms in the coming years to advance the modernization and green development of the agricultural sector, according to a guideline published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Feb 9.

The guideline stated that China aims to build 1,000 national-level eco-farms and 10,000 local ones by 2025.

It defines eco-farms as entities of agricultural production and operation that seek to maximize sustainable output in an environmentally friendly way that ensures food safety as well as resource matching.

China also hopes to foster a number of modern and efficient eco-farm market entities, promote technical patterns for building eco-farms, and explore supporting policies related to the development of ecological agriculture, it said.

The move will increase the supply of green agricultural products while boosting the quality, efficiency, and competitiveness of the agricultural sector.

According to a five-year plan on farming published last month, China will have made significant progress in the farming industry by 2025, boosting its capability to provide key farming produce and achieve green production.