On November 10th, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Administration of Law in the Field of Ecological Environment and Continuously Strengthening the Treatment of Pollution in accordance with the Law (referred to as the "Opinions on the Treatment of Pollution in accordance with the Law"). The relevant person in charge of the Regulations and Standards Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment answered questions from reporters regarding the Opinion on the Legal Treatment of Pollution.

Q: What is the background for formulating the "Opinions on the Legal Treatment of Pollution"?

This has pointed out the direction for pollution control in accordance with the law, and is also the fundamental guideline for the formulation of the Opinion on Pollution Control in accordance with the law.

The formulation of the "Opinions on the Governance of Pollution by Law" is an inevitable requirement for implementing the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee on the comprehensive governance of the country by law. Since December last year, the "Plan for Building a Rule of Law in China (2020-2025)", "Implementation Outline for Building a Rule of Law Government (2021-2025)", "Implementation Outline for Building a Rule of Law Society (2020-2025)", "Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Socialist Rule of Law Culture", and "Eighth Five Year Plan for Carrying out Rule of Law Propaganda and Education (2021-2025)" of the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Justice have been issued successively, Systemic requirements have been put forward for the rule of law work in various regions and departments across the country, and many important and specific arrangements have been made for the rule of law work in the ecological environment. The formulation of the "Opinions on the Rule of Law for Pollution Control" is to transform the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee into practical actions for the ecological environment system, and promote the rule of law in the ecological environment to achieve new and greater results.

The formulation of the "Opinions on Legal Pollution Control" is a solid legal guarantee for implementing the "Opinions on Deepening the Battle of Pollution Prevention and Control".   The formulation of the "Opinions on the Rule of Law for Pollution Control" is to comprehensively integrate ecological environment protection work into the legal track, promote the modernization of the ecological environment governance system and governance capacity on the legal track, deepen the battle against pollution prevention and control in accordance with the law, and promote high-level protection of the ecological environment through the construction of high-quality ecological civilization and the rule of law.

Q: What is the main content of the Opinion on the Legal Treatment of Pollution?

Answer: The main content of the Opinion on Legal Pollution Control is divided into three parts.

The first part is the overall requirements, including guiding ideology, main principles, and overall goals, focusing on enhancing the awareness of "respecting the law" in the field of ecological environment.

The second part is the main measures, focusing on the goal of legal pollution control, and systematically promoting the key work of ecological environment legal construction, with a focus on building a new pattern of "learning and abiding by the law" in the field of ecological environment.   The second is three legislative tasks: continuously promoting the improvement of national ecological environment laws and regulations, improving the national ecological environment standard system at the national level, and continuously strengthening local ecological environment regulations and standards at the local level. The third is two law enforcement inspections: continuously strengthening ecological environment law enforcement work and central ecological environment protection inspections. The fourth is the diversified resolution of two disputes in accordance with the law: continuously strengthening the legal handling of ecological environment petitions and reports, and administrative prevention and mediation of social conflicts and disputes in the field of ecological environment. The fifth is to carry out two environmental justice and legal education work: continuously promote the judicial protection of the ecological environment and the promotion of legal education in the field of ecological environment.

The third part focuses on key areas and important means, and applies legal measures to ensure the main business work of the ecological environment department, with a focus on improving the level of "usage" in the ecological environment field. Including eleven "legal promotion", it can be divided into two aspects: first, three important means that run through all aspects of ecological environment management: promoting the "streamlining administration and improving services" reform in the field of ecological environment in accordance with the law, promoting the implementation of the "three lines and one order" and environmental impact assessment management system in accordance with the law, and promoting the "one certificate" supervision of pollutant discharge permits in accordance with the law. The second is the eight main business areas of ecological environment protection: deepening the defense of blue skies in accordance with the law, promoting carbon reduction work in accordance with the law, deepening the defense of blue water in accordance with the law, deepening the defense of clean land in accordance with the law, promoting environmental management of solid waste and chemicals in accordance with the law, promoting ecological protection and restoration in accordance with the law, promoting nuclear and radiation safety supervision in accordance with the law, and promoting ecological environment emergency management in accordance with the law.

Q: What are the highlights of the Opinion on the Legal Treatment of Pollution?

The second is to adhere to the comprehensive and accurate implementation of the task requirements of the legal documents issued by the Party Central Committee on ecological environment legal work, and propose specific and detailed implementation measures.

The third is to adhere to the comprehensive and accurate connection of the ecological environment system, promote central work such as gas improvement, carbon reduction, ecological strengthening, water increase, soil stabilization, and risk prevention, and provide strong legal protection for it.