Full transcript of policy briefing of the State Council on Feb 13, 2015

Zhai Qing:

Second, our emissions controls are still not broad enough. The 11th Five-Year Plan listed two major pollutants, and the 12th Five-Year Plan included four major pollutants. That was determined by our existing capacity. The things that greatly affect air quality, such as soot, dust, volatile organic compounds and other pollutants, remained beyond control. The situation is similar in controlling water environments. Pollutants of high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) are now put under control, but pollutants related to total phosphorus and total nitrogen are not. To sum up, our controls are not wide-reaching enough, and these are relevant to our capacity.

We are undertaking policy research to address these problems. As for the tasks to be set out in the 13th Five-Year Plan, emissions reduction will remain on the agenda as legally-bound policy. We will reinforce that with other policies. The 13th Five-Year Plan will make “improving the quality of the environment” a priority, and overall planning — on emissions reductions — will take place. We will strive to show the relevance between reducing emissions and improving environment quality. We are working on this.

Zhai Qing:

The second question is about tackling water pollution. Last year reporters asked me about water, and my answer was that we were formulating the 10 provisions for water, also known as the action plan for preventing and eliminating water pollution. I can now tell you that the action plan is ready to be submitted and approved, and it will be made public soon. At another time we will introduce the key points, the underlying philosophy and the specific measures of the action plan.

That is all. Some of our department chiefs are also here. You can talk to them for more information after this briefing.

Hu Kaihong (host):

Due to the time limit, this is the end of today’s briefing. We’ll hold another policy briefing on Feb 27. Thank you, four ministers. Thank you all. I wish everybody here a happy Chinese Lunar New Year and I will see you after the Spring Festival.