On March 28, the 15th Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress reviewed the report on the environmental conditions and completion of environmental protection targets for 2018. The report was delivered by Chen Tian, director of the Beijing Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau. 

Chen said that in 2018, the Beijing municipal government formulated the management measures on the ecological control line and urban development boundary, which reduced the use of construction land by about 34 square kilometers. 

In the past year, the government kept improving the environment, trying to establish a "high-grade, precision, and advanced" economic structure. The authorities revised the catalogue of restricted industries and closed down 656 general manufacturing enterprises. In addition, the government completed the facelift of 1,141 back-streets and alleys in the city.

Speaking of the "Blue Sky" campaign, Chen said that in 2018, Beijing strengthened the control of heavy-duty diesel vehicles, scraped 47,000 heavily polluting diesel trucks, and put to use more than 230,000 new energy vehicles.  

It strengthened dust control by making use of the technological means of coarse particle monitoring, video surveillance, road dust monitoring, remote sensing, and other methods. 

The authorities reinforced the management of fixed pollution sources, carried out a second survey on pollution sources, and completed the issuance of emission permits for four industries. The key industrial sectors reduced the emissions of volatile organic compounds by 2,100 tons.

The clean energy transformation of coal-fired boilers in 450 villages and eight companies and institutions located in the plain area has been completed. The goal of "no coal-firing" in the plain areas has been achieved. In addition, the authorities issued an updated version of the emergency plan for heavy air pollution.

As for the "Clear Water" campaign, last year Beijing also established a long-term mechanism for water pollution control, and implemented the river chief and lake chief patrol system, as well as the cross-district water environment compensation mechanism.

The government spared no efforts in protecting the drinking water sources, and the groundwater level in the plain area has risen nearly 2 meters. The Miyun Reservoir has a total water storage of more than 2.5 billion cubic meters. 

The government has accelerated the construction of sewage treatment facilities, continued to implement the three-year plan for sewage treatment and reclaimed water utilization, and built 14 reclaimed water works such as Shangzhuang Water Works in Haidian district. The sewage treatment rate has reached 93 percent. Eight-four sections of odorous waterways in non-built areas have been treated. Water ecological control is put into place, 22 clean small watersheds have been established, and the use of recycled water has reached 1.07 billion cubic meters.

In terms of resource conservation and utilization, Chen said that Beijing issued the annual plan for energy conservation and addressing climate change, and conducted the assessment on energy conservation and carbon emission reduction. 

The government intensified efforts on construction of a water-saving city, and achieved zero growth in total water consumption throughout the year.

The government improved the recycling system of renewable resources and strengthened the comprehensive utilization of construction waste resources. 

With the approval from the Municipal People's Congress of Beijing, the government issued the ecological protection red line, making the designated protection area to account for 26.1 percent of the city's total. 

The city launched a new project of massive afforestation, and added afforestation and greening by 17,933 hectares.  

The government formulated the measures on vacating institutions from government-owned property with compensation, demolished constructions on a total area of 1,683 hectares, and turned them into green spaces. 

In 2018, the city launched the three-year "Beautiful Countryside" campaign and improved the environment in 1,081 villages.

With regard to ecological environmental governance, in 2018, the municipal government of Beijing strengthened supervision and realized the full coverage of environmental protection inspection in all 16 districts of Beijing, Chen said. At the same time, Beijing strengthened law enforcement supervision and effectively coordinated administrative law enforcement and criminal justice. During the year, the city transferred 65 cases of environmental violations to the public security departments, including 15 cases of suspected crimes of environmental pollution.

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