Implementation Plan for the Permit System for Controlling Pollutants Emission

• Document Number：No. 81 [2016] of the General Office of the State Council
• Area of Law： Environmental Protection
• Level of Authority： Regulatory Documents of the State Council
• Date issued：11-10-2016
• Effective Date：11-10-2016
• Status： Effective
• Issuing Authority： General Office of the State Council

Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Issuing the Implementation Plan for the Permit System for Controlling Pollutants Emission
(No. 81 [2016] of the General Office of the State Council)

The people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government; all ministries and commissions of the State Council; and all institutions directly under the State Council:
The Implementation Plan for the Permit System for Controlling Pollutants Emission has been approved by the State Council and is hereby issued to you for your conscientious implementation.
General Office of the State Council
November 10, 2016

Implementation Plan for the Permit System for Controlling Pollutants Emission

The permit system for controlling pollutants emission (hereinafter referred to as "emission permit system") is a basic environment management system to regulate pollutants emission by enterprises and public institutions in accordance with the law, and the environmental protection departments shall grant enterprises and public institutions emission permits, and implement supervision and the emission permit system by virtue of the permits. Over recent years, all regions have vigorously explored the emission permit system and made preliminary achievements. Nevertheless, generally speaking, the emission permit system is poorly oriented, the responsibility of enterprises and public institutions for pollution control is ineffectively implemented, and the environmental protection departments implement ineffective supervision by virtue of the permits, making it hard to fully give play to the effectiveness of the management system. In order to further promote the reform of the basic environment management system and improve environmental quality, this Plan is formulated in accordance with the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and the Overall Plan for the Reform of Eco-civilization System.

I. General requirements
(1) Guiding thought. We shall comprehensively implement the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Plenary Sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee, study and carry out in depth the spirit of a series of important speeches delivered by the General Secretary Xi Jinping, closely center ourselves on the overall arrangements for and advancement of the overall layout for "economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress" and the concerted advancement of the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy, firmly develop the concept of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, conscientiously implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, better build ecological civilization and protect environment, develop the emission permit system to an essential system of the environment management of fixed pollution sources and the basis of enterprise observing the law, the departments enforcing the law and social supervision, and lay a solid foundation for the improvement of environment management effectiveness and environment quality.
(2) Basic principles.
Simplification, efficiency and smooth connection. The emission permit system shall connect with the environmental impact assessment administration system, and merge with the total quantity control system, so as to provide unified pollutants emission data for the work such as collection of pollution discharge fee, environment statistics and trading in the right to pollutants emission, reduce repeated declarations, ease the burdens on enterprises and public institutions, and improve management efficiency.
Fairness and impartiality, and one permit for one enterprise. Enterprises and public institutions shall emit pollutants by virtue of permits, undertake the corresponding responsibility for pollution control according to the requirement for the improvement of environment quality and protection of environment safety in the places where they are located, undertake more responsibilities in the case of more pollutants emission and benefit from less emission. Emission permits shall be issued to enterprises and public institutions as the sole administrative licensing of the pollutants emission in manufacturing and operating period, and, in respect of such pollutants emission, the requirement for environment management they ought to observe in accordance with the law and the legal liability they ought to undertake shall be specified.
Defining powers and duties, and tightening supervision. Emission permits shall be the major legal instruments by which enterprises and public institutions accept environment supervision in manufacturing and operating period, and the environmental protection departments implement supervision. Enterprises and public institutions shall apply for and obtain emission permits in accordance with the law, emit pollutants according to the permits, and prove the observation of the law by themselves. The environmental protection departments shall, based on the commitments of enterprises and public institutions to observe the law, grant emission permits in accordance with the law, strengthen interim and ex-post supervision according to the permits, and strictly crack down upon the illegal pollutants emission.
Openness, transparency and social joint governance. The whole process of application for, issuance and supervision of emission permits shall be disclosed, and the information on the pollutants emission by enterprises and public institutions and the supervision and law enforcement by environmental protection departments shall be made public in a timely manner, so as to create conditions for observation of the law by enterprises, interactions between departments and social supervision.
(3) Objectives and tasks. By 2020, the issuance of emission permits covering all fixed pollution resources will have been completed, the national emission permit management information platform will have been in efficient operation, various environment management systems will have been concise, reasonable and organically connected, the primary responsibility of enterprises and public institutions for environmental protection will have been implemented, an emission permit system featuring complete legal system, scientific technical system and efficient management system will have been basically established, fixed pollution resources will have been subject to whole-process management and concerted multiple pollutants control, and the systematic, scientific, legal, elaborate and information-based "one-permit" management will have been realized.
II. Connecting with and integrating the relevant environment management system
(4) Establishing and improving a total quantity control system of pollutants emission by enterprises and public institutions. The method of breaking down total quantity indicator of pollutants emission purely with administrative regions as units and the measures for the calculation of total emission reduction shall be changed, and, by implementing the emission permit system, the requirement for the total quantity control of pollutants emission by enterprises and public institutions shall be implemented, so as to gradually realize the shift from total quantity control of pollutants emission in administrative regions to the total quantity control of the pollutants emission by enterprises and public institutions, and gradually unify the controlled scope as fixed pollution resources. In regions failing to meet the environment quality, through measures such as raising emission standards or tightening permitted emission volume, enterprises and public institutions shall be subject to stricter total quantity control of pollutants emission so as to promote the improvement of environment quality.
(5) Organically connecting with the environmental impact assessment system. The environmental impact assessment system is the environment access threshold of construction projects, the emission permit system is the legal basis for enterprises and public institutions to emit pollutants in manufacturing and operation, and the systems must be effectively and fully connected, so as to realize the supervision in the whole process from pollution prevention to pollution control and emission control. For a newly constructed project, an emission permit must be applied for and obtained prior to actual pollutants emission, the major content relating to pollutants emission in the environmental impact assessment and official reply shall be incorporated into the emission permit, and the implementation of the emission permit shall be used as an important basis of the assessment upon the impact on the environment.
III. Issuing emission permits in a standardized and orderly manner
(6) Making a management catalog of emission permits. The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall develop and publish the classification management catalog of emission permits, and consider enterprises and public institutions and other manufacturers and operators, and determine the classes of industries subject to management by emission permits. Enterprises and public institutions in different industries or of different categories in the same industry shall be subject to classification management according to the factors such as pollutant production volume, emission volume and harm to the environment, and in respect of industries or enterprises and public institutions having relatively small impact on environment and relatively low harm to the environment, the content of emission permits and corresponding requirements such as self-monitoring and ledger management shall be simplified.
(7) Regulating the issuance of emission permits. The environmental protection departments of the local governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the issuance of emission permits unless it is otherwise provided in the local rules. Enterprises and public institutions shall, according to the relevant regulations, standards and technical specifications, submit application documents, specify the types of emitted pollutants, emission concentration, etc., and calculate and indicate the volume of pollutants emission. Environmental protection departments shall grant emission permits to enterprises and public institutions meeting requirements in a timely manner, and conduct on-site inspection in the case of any doubts. The validity period of an emission permit issued for the first time shall be three years, and the validity period of a renewed emission permit shall be five years. The environmental protection departments at a higher level shall tighten supervision and random inspection, and have the power to revoke in accordance with the law the decisions made by the environmental protection departments at a lower level on granting emission permits. The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall uniformly develop the procedures for the application and issuance of emission permits, format of emission permits, information coding and platform interface standards, requirements for the relevant data format, etc. The existing emission permits and the requirements for the management thereof in all regions shall be regulated according to the uniform state requirement in a timely manner.
(8) Reasonably determine the permitted content. An emission permit shall specify the types, concentration, emission volume, emission destination, and other matters of pollutants of which the emission is permitted, and contain the content relating to pollution control facilities, environment management requirement, etc. Based on the pollutants emission standards, total quantity control indicators, environmental impact assessment documents and official replies, etc., the types, concentration and emission volume of pollutants of which the emission is permitted shall be reasonably determined in accordance with the law. According to the requirement of the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening Environmental Supervision and Law Enforcement (No. 56 [2014], General Office of the State Council), matters handled, corrected and regulated by the local governments in accordance with the law and meeting the requirement shall be incorporated into the scope of emission permit management. Stricter emission control requirements for enterprises and public institutions in planning on environment quality meeting standards within a prescribed period or the measures responding to heavy pollution weather as developed by the local governments shall be specified in emission permits.
(9) Realizing full coverage by emission permits by steps. The content of the emission permit management mainly includes air and water pollutants, and other pollutants shall be gradually added in accordance with the law. The full coverage of fixed pollution sources by emission permits by industry and by steps shall be realized, emission permits shall be first granted to enterprises in the industries of thermal power and paper making, in 2017, the issuance of emission permits to enterprises in key industries as mentioned in the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan and the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, and in the industries with excess production capacity shall be completed, and in 2020, the issuance of emission permits shall be completed across the country.
IV. Strictly implementing the responsibility of enterprises and public institutions for environmental protection
(10) Implementing the responsibility for emission by permits. All enterprises and public institutions subject to emission permit management must regularly emit pollutants by and according to the permits, and shall not emit pollutants without a permit. Enterprises and public institutions shall apply for and obtain emission permits in a timely manner, assume legal liability for the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of application documents, promise to emit pollutants according to the provisions in the emission permits and ensure strict implementation; the control measures for pollutants emission and other environment management requirements shall be implemented to ensure that the types, concentration, volume, etc. of emitted pollutants meet the requirements in the permits; the responsibility of persons in charge of entities and the relevant persons shall be specified, the level of pollution and environment management shall be constantly raised, and supervision and inspection shall be voluntarily accepted.
(11) Implementing self-monitoring and regular reports. Enterprises and public institutions shall conduct self-monitoring in accordance with the law, install or use monitoring equipment conforming to the relevant state environment monitoring and measurement certification provisions and technical specifications, ensure that data is legal and valid, guarantee the normal operations of equipment, properly preserve original records, make accurate and complete environment management ledgers, and connect their websites with those of the environmental protection departments in the case of having installed online monitoring equipment. Enterprises and public institutions shall faithfully make reports on the implementation of the emission permits to the environmental protection departments, publicly disclose the pollutants emission data in accordance with the law, and be responsible for the authenticity of the data. If the emission lacks conformity with the emission permits, a timely report shall be made to the environmental protection departments.
V. Strengthening supervision and administration
(12) Strictly conducting supervision and law enforcement according to the permits. Supervision by permits is key to the implementation of the emission permit system, the implementation of the permitted matters and management requirements shall be examined in priority, through law enforcement, monitoring, examination of ledgers, and other means, the authenticity of emission data and reports shall be verified, whether emission is up to standards shall be determined, and the volume of emission shall be examined. The online monitoring data of enterprises and public institutions may be used as the basis of supervision and law enforcement by environmental protection departments. Supervision and law enforcement shall be regularly conducted according to the principle of "whoever granted the permits is responsible for supervision," and a timely examination shall be made upon the first issuance of emission permits; in respect of those with violation records, the frequency of examination shall be raised; and more frequent law enforcement and severer punishment shall be imposed on enterprises in the industries causing serious pollution and with excess production capacity to promote capacity reduction. The time, content and results of on-site examination and punishment decisions shall be recorded in the emission permit management information platform.
(13) Seriously investigating and dealing with illegal emission. Based on the illegal circumstances, measures such as continuous fines by day, restricting production, suspending business for rectification, terminating business and shutdown shall be adopted in accordance with the law, severe punishment shall be imposed for emission without permits or not by permits, and criminal responsibilities shall be investigated according to the law if a crime is constituted. In the case that an environmental protection department discovers in examination any inconsistency between the actual circumstances and the environment management ledgers, or the reports on the implementation of emission permits, etc., it may order explanations and impose punishment in accordance with the law in the case of failure to make explanations and provide the original monitoring records.
(14) Comprehensively utilizing market mechanisms and policies. Enterprises and public institutions which voluntarily implement stricter emission concentration and volume than those in permits and of which the voluntary implementation is contained in the emission permits shall be provided better price incentive measures such as electricity tariff incentives and may be entitled to incentive policies in the relevant policies on environmental protection, comprehensive resource utilization, etc. if meeting the prescribed conditions. The environmental protection tax to be levied shall be organically connected, the actual emission data of enterprises and public institutions and tax filing data shall be exchanged and shared, and enterprises and public institutions shall be guided in emitting pollutants by permits and paying the tax honestly. The emission permits are the documents to confirm the right to emission and an management vehicle of trading in pollutants emission, and enterprises and public institutions may, on the basis of performing the statutory duties, trade in the volume of pollutants emission reduced by eliminating laggard and excess production capacity, cleaner production, pollution control, technology transformation and upgrade, etc. on markets according to provisions.
VI. Strengthening public information disclosure and social supervision
(15) Raising the information level of management. When the national emission permit management information platform is established in 2017, the work process of and information on the applications for, issuance, supervision and law enforcement of emission permits shall be incorporated into the platform, and the existing emission permit management information platforms in all regions shall be gradually connected. The unified social credit code shall be appropriately expanded to make unified national emission permit codes. The information on emission permits shall be uniformly collected, stored and managed through the emission permit management information platform to realize networking of all levels, data integration and information sharing. The actual emission data so formed shall be used as the data for environmental protection departments to collect pollution discharge fee, make environment statistics, compile lists of pollution sources, and conduct environment management of all fixed pollution sources.
(16) Intensifying information disclosure. The self-monitoring data of enterprises and public institutions and the information on the supervision and law enforcement by environmental protection departments shall be publicly disclosed at the national emission permit management information platform in a timely manner, and the list of enterprises and public institutions which failed to emit pollutants by permits shall be made public, incorporated into the credit appraisal of enterprise environmental conduct, and published through the enterprise credit information disclosure system. The information on pollution sources shall be shared with environmental protection report platforms, and the general public shall be encouraged to report pollutants emission without permits or not by permits. Environmental public interest litigation shall be advanced in accordance with the law and social supervision shall be enhanced.
VII. Effectively ensuring the implementation of the emission permit system
(17) Strengthening organization and leadership. All regions shall attach great importance to the implementation of the emission permit system, unify thought, improve recognition, specify objectives and tasks, develop implementation plans and ensure the timely completion of the issuance of emission permits. All environment management systems shall be effectively connected during the advancement of the emission permit system to avert management vacuum. The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall strengthen the guidance to the implementation of the national emission permit system, develop the relevant administration measures, summarize and promote experience, and follow and assess the implementation. The implementation of the emission permit system shall be incorporated into the supervision of environmental protection and accountability shall be held in the case of ineffective implementation.
(18) Improving laws and regulations. The revision of the Regulations on the Administration of Construction Project Environmental Protection shall be accelerated and the regulations on the administration of emission permits shall be formulated. In conjunction with the revision of the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the regulations on the burden of proof on the enterprises and public institutions proving their lawful emission of pollutants and severer punishment for successive illegal acts of pollutants emission without permits or not by permits shall be researched and developed. The revision of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes and the Law on Prevention and Control of Pollution from Environmental Noise shall be promoted, and subjecting the relevant pollutants to emission permit management shall be explored.
(19) Improving technology support system. Existing pollutants emission standards shall be sorted out, assessed and revised in due time. A feasible system based on the emission standards shall be established and improved, and the upgrade and transformation of pollution prevention and control and technology progress of enterprises and public institutions shall be promoted. The emission permit enforcement, supervision and law enforcement technology system shall be improved, enterprises and public institutions shall be guided in conducting self-monitoring, keeping ledgers and records, making implementation reports, publicly disclosing information, and conducting other work, and the ledger examination, on-site law enforcement and other conduct of environmental protection departments shall be regulated. The consultation and monitoring service market shall be fostered and regulated, and the building of the talent team shall be promoted.
(20) Conducting publicity and training. More support shall be given to the publicity of the emission permit system, the system shall be effectively interpreted, and social concerns shall be responded to in a timely manner. The environmental protection departments at all levels, enterprises and public institutions, and consultation and monitoring institutions shall be organized to provide specialized training. The primary responsibility of the local governments for environmental protection shall be enhanced, enterprises and public institutions' awareness of environmental protection shall be developed, the general public shall be guided in an orderly manner to better participate in the supervision of pollutants emission by enterprises and public institutions, and a good atmosphere featuring comprehensive administration and control by the government, observance of the permits and the law by enterprises and joint supervision by society shall be created.