Recently, Shandong’s payment of 126 million yuan in ecological compensation to Henan has attracted much attention.
At a press conference held by the Shandong Provincial Government Information Office on July 5, Shandong announced the results of last year’s “bet”. Henan won the “bet” and Shandong cashed in Henan Province’s ecological compensation fund of 126 million yuan.
In 2021, Henan Province in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and Shandong Province in the lower reaches reached an agreement through consultation and signed the "Yellow River Basin (Henan-Shandong Section) Horizontal Ecological Protection Compensation Agreement" (hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement").
The "Agreement" stipulates that the annual average water quality of the Liuzhuang State-controlled section across the border of the two provinces is based on Category III. For every water quality category that improves, Shandong will give Henan 60 million yuan in compensation; conversely, for every water quality category that deteriorates, Henan will give Shandong 60 million yuan. .
In addition, if the annual index of the three key pollutants in the section decreases by 1 percentage point, Shandong will give Henan 1 million yuan in compensation; conversely, if the annual index of the three key pollutants in the section decreases by 1 percentage point, Henan will give Shandong 1 million yuan in compensation.
This means that the maximum compensation for this "gamble" can reach 100 million yuan. Many netizens likened this "agreement" to a real-life version of "A Date with Lu Yu."
Recently, the “bet” agreement has been implemented for one year. Since the water quality of the Yellow River entering Shandong has always remained above Class II, Shandong, as the beneficiary of ecological benefits, paid 126 million yuan in ecological compensation funds to Henan.
A "bet" with equal rights and responsibilities
The Yellow River flows through 9 provinces and regions, with a total length of 5,464 kilometers. It has many important ecological functional areas such as the Yellow River's natural ecological corridor and Sanjiangyuan and the Qilian Mountains. The river basin is distributed The main agricultural product-producing areas such as the Huanghuaihai Plain, Fenwei Plain, and Hetao Irrigation Area are important energy, chemical, raw material and basic industrial bases in my country. They play a very important role in my country's economic and social development and ecological security.
Yellow River Cultural Park, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Picture/Picture Chong Creative
However, since the 1990s, the Yellow River Basin has faced prominent ecological and environmental problems. The water quality in the basin and the air quality in various provinces and regions are lower than the national average. Almost all major tributaries are seriously polluted, and the main stream is generally moderately polluted. .
Shandong and Henan are two adjacent provinces in the Yellow River Basin. As relatively downstream provinces, the two provinces have suffered greatly from this, and there is also a phenomenon of unclear definition of rights and responsibilities.
"The downstream discharges sewage while passing the responsibility to the upstream, blaming the upstream for the poor water quality; the upstream also discharges sewage while pushing the responsibility for water quality to the upper reaches. After all, it is the upstream's fault." Some people in the industry People have described this scene this way.
At the same time, the ecosystem of the Yellow River Basin is fragile, and once damaged, it will be extremely difficult to restore.
In order to solve this problem, the country has established an "online water quality monitoring system" at the junctions of important rivers in various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and set assessment targets for each section. The Liuzhuang National Control Section is a cross-provincial water quality monitoring section in Henan and Shandong provinces.
In 2020, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Water Resources, National Forestry and Grassland Administration issued the "Implementation Plan to Support and Guide the Establishment of a Horizontal Ecological Compensation Mechanism Pilot in the Whole Yellow River Basin", which requires the following "shared protection responsibilities, river basin Based on the principle of "co-governance of the environment and sharing of ecological benefits", we will explore and establish a horizontal ecological compensation model with demonstration significance for the entire river basin.
After that, Shandong, as the most downstream province in the Yellow River Basin, took the initiative to connect with Henan and signed the first inter-provincial horizontal ecological protection compensation agreement in the Yellow River Basin with it in May 2021. Based on the water quality monitoring results of the Liuzhuang National Control Section, the horizontal ecological protection of the Yellow River Basin was Compensation mechanisms are explored.
Compared with other types of environmental protection management, river water ecological protection requires particularly high collaboration between upstream and downstream places. The horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in the river basin can achieve complementary interests through consultation and negotiation between local governments upstream and downstream of the river basin, thereby coordinating and balancing the interest relationships between ecological protection areas and ecological benefit areas.
The special feature of the "Luyu Date" version of the ecological compensation agreement is the introduction of the " gambling agreement ". It is not only a one-way agreement that the beneficiary party of ecological protection must pay a certain amount of compensation to the protector, but it also agrees that the party whose governance fails to meet the standards must give equal compensation to the "victimized party".
In this way, ecological compensation becomes more equitable, ensuring equal rights and responsibilities between both parties, and at the same time strengthening the conservation party's motivation and enthusiasm for ecological restoration.
In order to "gamble" to win this agreement, Henan actively carried out ecological environmental management in the Yellow River Basin, formulated and implemented water pollutant discharge standards in the Yellow River Basin, tightened water pollutant discharge indicators, and implemented "one river, one policy" for key tributaries of the Yellow River. "Renovation, nearly a hundred comprehensive improvement projects have been implemented, and we have taken the lead in completing ultra-low emission transformation of enterprises in key industries such as steel and cement in the basin.
Take the Mang River as an example. As a tributary of the left bank of the Yellow River, it flows through Jiyuan City, Henan, Jiaozuo City, , and flows into the Yellow River in Wuzhi County, Jiaozuo City. Monitoring data from the Jiyuan City Ecological Environment Bureau shows that the water quality of the Nanguanzhuang section of the Mang River outbound section was still Class V or worse than Class V before 2018. After treatment, it has now been able to stably reach Class IV, and some water quality indicators can reach Class III.
As for Shandong, while establishing and implementing the inter-provincial horizontal compensation mechanism in the Yellow River Basin, it has also established a basin-wide horizontal ecological compensation mechanism among counties within the province.
In September 2021, all 301 cross-county boundary sections in Shandong Province signed horizontal compensation agreements. As of the end of May 2022, a total of 324 million yuan in inter-county horizontal ecological compensation funds had been paid. Among them, the downstream compensates the upstream 217 million yuan, and the upstream compensates the downstream 107 million yuan.
The compensation amount significantly exceeded the compensation amount, reflecting the overall continued improvement of upstream water quality. Yu Wenxuan, director of the Institute of Environmental Resources Law of China University of Political Science and Law, told China News Weekly that judging from the results, this "bet" agreement enabled both parties to achieve a win-win situation.
He said that on the one hand, the ecological environment protection of the Yellow River Basin has achieved remarkable results, and the water quality within the province and the water quality at the provincial boundary have been significantly improved; on the other hand, Henan Province has also received ecological compensation funds paid by Shandong Province and achieved economic benefits. The unification with ecological benefits "is an innovation in the horizontal ecological compensation method in inter-provincial watersheds."
18 provinces have signed inter-provincial ecological compensation agreements
It is understood that watershed ecological compensation is an active exploration in the field of domestic ecological protection in recent years.
As early as the end of 2010, the Ministry of Finance and the former Ministry of Environmental Protection allocated 50 million yuan in start-up funds to Anhui Province, making Xin'anjiang the country's first cross-provincial river basin water environment compensation pilot.
In 2011, the people's governments of six cities and one district in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces signed the "Weihe River Basin Environmental Protection Cities Alliance Framework Agreement", and then a series of river basin protection regulations were introduced one after another.
On December 20, 2016, the Ministry of Finance and other four departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Horizontal Ecological Protection Compensation Mechanism for Upstream and Downstream Watersheds", which proposed that by 2020, the upstream and downstream watersheds within the administrative regions of each province (autonomous region, city) The horizontal ecological protection compensation mechanism has been basically established; by 2025, the scope of horizontal ecological protection compensation pilots in the upstream and downstream river basins across multiple provinces will be further expanded.
Currently, with the support of the central finance, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has coordinated 18 relevant provinces and signed 13 cross-provincial river basin horizontal ecological compensation agreements, half of which have completed at least one round of compensation agreements.
Among them, the Xin'an River Basin has completed the third round of basin compensation work, and Anhui and Zhejiang provinces are currently negotiating to extend the agreement.
Zhang Bo, chief engineer of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and director of the Department of Water Ecology and Environment, said at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment’s first regular press conference in 2022, “The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will actively cooperate with the Ministry of Finance to continue to support the construction of an ecological protection compensation mechanism and encourage Various localities have taken the lead and promoted ecological protection compensation in river basins to become an important starting point for the green development of river basins and continuously improve the level of river basin management. "
However, there are still many challenges in promoting the construction of ecological compensation mechanisms in river basins.
Yu Wenxuan said that our country has not yet formulated a special law for ecological protection compensation. Legal provisions related to ecological protection compensation are scattered in various separate laws, such as Article 34 of the " Environmental Protection Law ", " Yangtze River Article 76 of the Protection Law , Article 7 of the Forest Law, etc. Most of these regulations are principled, advocative, and encouraging regulations, and lack provisions on the scope, objects, subject delineation, fund sources, compensation standards, fund management and other issues of ecological compensation.
In recent years, relevant departments have also issued some policies or legal documents on ecological protection compensation, such as the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Improving the Ecological Protection Compensation Mechanism", " National Development and Reform Commission , the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Ministry of Water Resources on promoting Guiding Opinions on Establishing an Ecological Protection Compensation Mechanism in the Taihu Lake Basin", " Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Ecological Protection Compensation System ", " Implementation Plan to Support the Establishment of a Horizontal Ecological Protection Compensation Mechanism in the Yangtze River Basin ", etc.
Some analysts pointed out that these documents are of great significance in promoting the exploration of ecological protection compensation mechanism, but their content is mostly suggestions and encouragement, and the level of legal effect is also low.
Yu Wenxuan told China News Weekly that the most common method of compensation for ecological protection in river basins is financial compensation, that is, the beneficiary pays the corresponding currency to the compensated person. This kind of compensation method, which is mainly in the form of currency, is not easy to ensure the long-term effectiveness and stability of the ecological compensation effect. Whether the compensation funds are received in a timely manner will also directly affect the implementation effect.
At the same time, some ecological benefits are difficult to quantify through monetary means, which also increases the difficulty of determining scientific and reasonable compensation standards. "There is also a lack of clear regulations on the ways and procedures for ecological protection compensation." Yu Wenxuan said.
"Whoever develops will protect, and whoever benefits will compensate"
How to explore the ecological compensation model and establish a cross-regional environmental protection governance collaboration mechanism based on local conditions has always been the focus of all parties.
Zhang Bo believes that since the implementation of the ecological compensation mechanism in the river basin, the water environment quality of the cross-border section has steadily improved, the coordination capacity of the upper and lower reaches of the basin has been significantly improved, and the effect of ecological compensation in promoting green development in the upstream areas has also initially appeared.
For example, the Xinan River Basin has established the country's first inter-provincial river basin green development fund. Anhui and Zhejiang provinces are exploring jointly building a green industry cooperation demonstration zone in the Xinan River Basin and exploring a "hematopoietic" ecological compensation mechanism. "It's not just financial compensation, but also a 'hematopoietic' ecological compensation mechanism through industrial cooperation," Zhang Bo said.
As for the standards of ecological compensation, there are suggestions that the country should introduce unified compensation standards. Zhang Bo believes that the actual conditions in various places and the conditions of each river basin vary widely, and the compensation standards should vary from place to place. "Upstream and downstream often have disputes over what compensation standards should be implemented. It is unlikely to use national unified standards to resolve this complex problem."
"The current approach is to use some points that are more acceptable to the upstream and downstream of the basin as compensation standards. "For example, whether the water environment quality objectives of the upstream and downstream intersections meet the standards; and the protection of upstream and downstream water sources, which are generally more concerned about by the downstream, some compensation can be carried out in the protection of water sources." Zhang Bo believes that we can first carry out some compensation. It’s easy and then it’s difficult, so gradually improve it.
In order to better promote the smooth development of horizontal ecological compensation, He Daixin, director of the Fiscal Research Office of the Institute of Financial and Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, once suggested using market mechanisms to stimulate enthusiasm for ecological protection.
"The ecological protection compensation system should achieve a better combination of effective market and promising government. The compensation itself reflects the economic costs and benefits. Ecological protection issues are no longer solved entirely through government means, but are implemented through a more transparent and quantitative market mechanism. , establish a multi-party compensation mechanism,” he said.
According to Yu Wenxuan, in the exploration of horizontal ecological compensation mechanisms in regions and river basins, methods or combinations such as policy compensation, physical compensation, technology compensation, purchase of services, and talent training can be tried to achieve synergy and complementarity among various methods.
At the same time, attention should be paid to the definition of rights and obligations between the protection subject and the beneficiary subject, and in accordance with the basic principle of "who develops, who protects, who benefits, who compensates", clarify the rights, obligations and responsibility distribution of all parties, and ensure the rights and obligations. unification, equality of benefits and compensation, and a win-win situation for all parties.
In addition, Yu Wenxuan also emphasized the need to play the leading and promoting role of legislation and further improve regulations on compensation objects, compensation methods, compensation channels, compensation standards and assessment standards, and fund management. Through legislation, we can achieve a balance of ecological interests among regions and river basins, and promote a long-term and efficient ecological environment governance model from a legal perspective.
“The management of ecological protection compensation funds should also be strengthened, and legal responsibilities should be stipulated for illegal misappropriation or interception of compensation funds, and accountability should be strengthened,” he said.
Author: Chen Shulian
