Notice on Issuing the Action Plan for Comprehensive Air Pollution Control in the Autumn and Winter of 2020-2021 in the Yangtze River Delta Region

To the People's Governments of Nanjing, Wuxi, Xuzhou, Changzhou, Suzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang, Huai'an, Yancheng, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Taizhou, Suqian, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Quzhou, Zhoushan, Taizhou, Lishui, Hefei, Huaibei, Bozhou, Suzhou, Fuyang, Bengbu, Huainan, Chuzhou, Lu'an, Ma'anshan, Wuhu, Xuancheng, Tongling, Chizhou, Anqing, and Huangshan; China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petrochemical Corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.:

The Action Plan for Comprehensive Air Pollution Control in the Autumn and Winter of 2020-2021 in the Yangtze River Delta Region is hereby issued to you, and please implement it accordingly.

Ministry of Ecology and Environment, National Development and Reform Commission

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security

Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development

Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce

State Administration for Market Regulation, National Energy Administration

Shanghai Municipal People's Government, Jiangsu Provincial People's Government

Zhejiang Provincial People's Government, Anhui Provincial People's Government

October 30, 2020

(This document is released to the public)

Action Plan for Comprehensive Air Pollution Control in the Autumn and Winter of 2020-2021 in the Yangtze River Delta Region

Since 2018, the Yangtze River Delta region has continuously carried out the action for comprehensive air pollution control in autumn and winter, and air quality has improved markedly. In the autumn and winter of 2019-2020, the average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the Yangtze River Delta region decreased by 22% compared with the autumn and winter of 2017-2018, and the number of heavily polluted days decreased by 79%. Although positive results have been achieved in the autumn and winter action, the average PM2.5 concentration in the Yangtze River Delta region in autumn and winter is still 50%-70% higher than in other seasons, heavily polluted weather accounts for more than 95% of the whole year, and PM2.5 concentrations in major cities in northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui remain at high levels. As the situation of epidemic prevention and control continues to improve and enterprises accelerate the resumption of work and production, much of the production capacity and output suppressed by the impact of the epidemic is growing rapidly in a concentrated manner within a short period; pollutant emissions in autumn and winter may rebound, the pressure for continuous improvement of ambient air quality has increased, and some areas are at risk of failing to complete the 13th Five-Year Plan air quality improvement targets. The autumn and winter of 2020-2021 is the third action season in the Yangtze River Delta region; the effectiveness of the action bears on building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and bears on the successful conclusion of the 13th Five-Year Plan and the fight to defend the blue sky. All localities shall, in accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, raise their political stance and continuously carry out the action for comprehensive air pollution control in autumn and winter, so as to ensure the timely completion of the established targets and tasks of the fight to defend the blue sky.

I. General Requirements

(1) Basic approach. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the second, third, fourth, and fifth plenary sessions of the 19th Central Committee, and, on the basis of inheriting the effective work of the past, continue to maintain the same direction and undiminished intensity, highlight precise pollution control, scientific pollution control, and law-based pollution control, coordinate the advancement of all work of comprehensive air pollution control in autumn and winter, and serve the overall situation of "six stabilizations" and "six guarantees". Adopt proactive and prudent measures to further consolidate and enhance the results achieved in past autumn and winter actions, achieve precision in the five aspects of time, region, object, problem, and measure, base efforts on implementing the policies and measures already issued, and prevent layer-by-layer escalation of requirements. Centering on continuously promoting the improvement of ambient air quality and effectively responding to heavily polluted weather, implement graded and classified management and control of enterprise performance, deeply advance the integrated cooperation mechanism, and strengthen regional joint prevention and control; continuously advance the ultra-low emission transformation of the steel industry, the "shift from road to rail" and "shift from road to water" of bulk cargo transport, pollution control of diesel trucks and ships, the action on volatile organic compounds, and the control of industrial furnaces, kilns, and coal-fired boilers. Adhere to a problem-oriented approach, consolidate the responsibilities of departments and localities, increase assistance efforts, strictly prevent the rebound of heavily polluted weather, and achieve a successful conclusion of the fight to defend the blue sky.

(2) Main objectives. Comprehensively complete the 2020 air quality improvement targets set by the Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Battle to Defend the Blue Sky (hereinafter referred to as the "Three-Year Action Plan"), and coordinate the control of greenhouse gas emissions. Following the principle of consolidating achievements and seeking progress while maintaining stability, and fully considering the impact of the epidemic on air quality in the first quarter of 2020, the targets for the autumn and winter of 2020-2021 are set in two stages; based on the pollution levels in the first and fourth quarters of 2019, the PM2.5 concentration control targets for each city are determined by category, divided into 6 grades according to the degree of pollution, with a difference of 1 percentage point between each grade of PM2.5 concentration, and cities that lag in the progress of completing the 13th Five-Year Plan targets are subject to higher requirements.

From October to December 2020, the average PM2.5 concentration in the Yangtze River Delta region shall be controlled within 45 micrograms per cubic meter; from January to March 2021, it shall be controlled within 58 micrograms per cubic meter (see Annex 1 for details).

(3) Scope of implementation. The Yangtze River Delta region includes Shanghai Municipality; Nanjing, Wuxi, Xuzhou, Changzhou, Suzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang, Huai'an, Yancheng, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Taizhou, and Suqian of Jiangsu Province; Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Quzhou, Zhoushan, Taizhou, and Lishui of Zhejiang Province; and Hefei, Huaibei, Bozhou, Suzhou, Fuyang, Bengbu, Huainan, Chuzhou, Lu'an, Ma'anshan, Wuhu, Xuancheng, Tongling, Chizhou, Anqing, and Huangshan of Anhui Province.

II. Comprehensively Complete the Key Tasks of Winning the Battle to Defend the Blue Sky

(4) Strictly prevent the rebound of "scattered, disorderly, and polluting" enterprises. Each city shall improve the dynamic management mechanism to achieve dynamic zeroing of "scattered, disorderly, and polluting" enterprises. Enterprises that have completed rectification shall be promptly removed from the "scattered, disorderly, and polluting" list, and newly discovered "scattered, disorderly, and polluting" enterprises shall have files and records created and shall be promptly included in the management ledger. Further consolidate grid-based management, implement the territorial management responsibilities of townships and subdistricts, regularly carry out investigation and rectification work, and rectify each case as soon as it is discovered. Resolutely prevent "scattered, disorderly, and polluting" enterprises that have been shut down and banned from reviving and relocating elsewhere, and resolutely curb the rebound phenomenon. Innovate regulatory methods, make full use of the electricity consumption data of dedicated transformers of power grid companies as well as technologies such as satellite remote sensing and drones, and solidly carry out the investigation and supervision of "scattered, disorderly, and polluting" enterprises.

(5) Orderly implement the ultra-low emission transformation of the steel industry. All localities shall, in accordance with the Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of Ultra-Low Emissions in the Steel Industry jointly issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and four other departments, enhance service awareness, coordinate and organize relevant resources, help steel enterprises choose mature and applicable environmental protection transformation technology routes according to factory conditions, and provide favorable conditions for enterprises' ultra-low emission transformation, especially clean transport. By the end of December 2020, strive to basically complete ultra-low emission transformation for about 60% of production capacity; Shanghai shall complete the ultra-low emission transformation of 3 units of 600-square-meter sintering machines and 5.53 million tons of coke production capacity of Baowu Group; Jiangsu Province shall complete the ultra-low emission transformation of 90 million tons, Zhejiang Province 5.6 million tons, and Anhui Province 6.7 million tons of crude steel production capacity.

All localities shall guide steel enterprises that have completed ultra-low emission transformation to carry out assessment and monitoring work in accordance with the Technical Guidelines for Assessment and Monitoring of Ultra-Low Emissions of Steel Enterprises. For enterprises confirmed through assessment to have fully met ultra-low emission requirements, after public announcement by the Iron and Steel Association according to procedures, they shall be included in dynamic list management and shall implement differentiated emergency emission reduction measures during heavily polluted weather warnings; for steel enterprises and assessment and monitoring institutions that practice fraud in assessment and monitoring work, once discovered, relevant preferential policies shall be canceled and the enterprise's emergency performance grade shall be downgraded to Grade D.

(6) Implement the requirements for industrial structure adjustment. All localities shall, in accordance with the already-issued plans for industrial structure adjustment and high-quality development of the steel, building materials, coking, chemical, and other industries, comprehensively complete the established task targets of reducing excess capacity and phasing out backward production capacity, and establish project ledgers. Increase the intensity of rectification of chemical industry parks, continuously advance the lawful closure or relocation of chemical enterprises with major safety and environmental hazards in environmentally sensitive areas along rivers, lakes, and bays, and accelerate the lawful relocation, transformation, or closure and exit of heavily polluting enterprises in urban built-up areas. Shanghai shall complete no fewer than 700 industrial structure adjustment tasks throughout the city, and orderly advance the adjustment and upgrading of enterprises involved in the Implementation Plan of the "Chemical Optimization" Action (2018-2020). Jiangsu Province shall comprehensively complete the annual target tasks of safety and environmental protection rectification and upgrading of the chemical industry; by the end of 2020, chemical production enterprises located within 1 kilometer on both sides of the main and tributary streams of the Yangtze River and outside chemical industry parks shall in principle all lawfully exit or relocate; for enterprises that truly cannot be relocated, safety and environmental risk assessments shall be conducted one by one, and transformation and upgrading shall be promptly carried out using "one enterprise, one policy"; enterprises within chemical industry parks shall be assessed one by one and disposition opinions shall be proposed; by the end of 2020, enterprises with no industrial chain connection to the park where they are located and with major safety and environmental hazards shall lawfully be closed and exit. Zhejiang Province shall complete comprehensive air pollution control in 100 key industrial parks. Anhui Province shall increase the intensity of rectification of existing chemical industry parks and promote the implementation of a number of relocation and transformation projects for heavily polluting enterprises in cement, flat glass, coking, chemical, and other industries.

(7) Continuously advance the action on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) control. Implement the 2020 Action Plan for Volatile Organic Compounds Control and continuously advance all task measures of the VOCs control action. Complete the construction of key control projects and achieve "treating summer diseases in winter". By the end of December 2020, all localities shall, for enterprises with prominent problems discovered in the supervision and assistance work for summer ozone pollution prevention and control, guide the enterprises to formulate rectification plans; cultivate and establish a number of benchmark enterprises for VOCs source control, increase publicity efforts, and create a driving effect; organize and complete the investigation of bypasses of exhaust gas emission systems of enterprises in petrochemical, chemical, industrial coating, packaging and printing, and other industries, the investigation of flare emissions in the petrochemical and chemical industries, the investigation of volatile organic liquid storage tanks for crude oil, refined oil, organic chemicals, and the like, and the investigation of the construction and use of oil and gas recovery facilities at ports and docks, and establish management lists. By the end of March 2021, urge enterprises to cancel unnecessary bypasses; for those that must be retained due to work safety and other reasons, strengthen supervision through lead sealing, installation of automatic monitoring facilities, flow meters, and the like; while ensuring safety, urge petrochemical and chemical enterprises to strengthen the supervision of flare system emissions through the installation of flare system temperature monitoring, video monitoring, calorific value detectors, exhaust gas flow meters, combustion-supporting gas flow meters, and the like. Further increase the intensity of comprehensive exhaust gas control in petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, pesticide, automobile manufacturing, shipbuilding and repair, furniture manufacturing, packaging and printing, and other industries, promote "one policy per industry" for key industries, and increase the intensity of clean production transformation.

(8) Advance key projects of "shift from road to rail" and "shift from road to water". Comprehensively implement the relevant requirements of the Notice of the Ministry of Transport and eight other departments on Implementing the General Office of the State Council's Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting Transport Structure Adjustment (2018-2020), the Implementation Plan for Special Rectification of Port Freight and Container Transshipment (Including Shore Power Use) in the Yangtze River Delta Region, and the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Railway Dedicated Lines of the National Development and Reform Commission and four other departments, accelerate the development of container rail-water intermodal transport, advance the construction of port-collecting and port-distributing railways, and vigorously develop water-to-water transshipment, direct river-sea transport, and river-sea combined transport. By the end of 2020, the railway freight volume in the Yangtze River Delta region shall increase by more than 10% compared with 2017, the container rail-water intermodal transport volume of key ports shall increase by more than 10% annually on average, coal arriving at major coastal ports shall all be changed to transport by rail or water, and bulk cargo such as ore and coke shall in principle be mainly changed to transport by rail or water.

(9) Accelerate the control of diesel trucks. Each city shall strengthen multi-department joint law enforcement and supervision, strictly investigate and punish motor vehicles with excessive emissions, and, in accordance with the requirements of the Notice on Establishing and Implementing the Vehicle Emission Inspection and Maintenance System jointly issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and two other departments, urge the effective implementation of the vehicle emission inspection and maintenance system and achieve closed-loop management of exhaust gas inspection and maintenance treatment for vehicles with excessive emissions. All localities shall not illegally set up height-limiting or width-limiting facilities in the name of environmental protection, nor set up targeted detour routes near air quality monitoring points to artificially intervene in monitoring results. Continuously operate and maintain the motor vehicle environmental protection information service platform in the Yangtze River Delta region, share information on China III diesel trucks and vehicles with excessive emissions and update it regularly, and include them in the scope of key supervision. Each city shall implement the task requirements of promoting the use of new energy and clean energy vehicles in the fields of public transport, sanitation, postal services, taxis, commuting, and light-duty logistics distribution. Actively advance the coding and registration of non-road mobile machinery, strictly implement the work requirements of facilitating the people and benefiting the people, and strictly prohibit arbitrary charges. Carry out law enforcement inspections of non-road mobile machinery and lawfully include units with prominent excessive emission problems in the list of dishonest entities. Continuously concentrate on cracking down on and cleaning up and banning illegal refueling stations and mobile refueling vehicles, and severely crack down on illegal acts such as the production, sale, and use of unqualified oil products and automotive urea.

(10) Deepen the construction of ship emission control areas and green ports. Implement the Notice of the Ministry of Transport on Issuing the Implementation Plan for Ship Air Pollutant Emission Control Areas, the 2020 Implementation Plan for the Global Sulphur Limit for Marine Fuel Oil, and the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Supply Guarantee and Joint Supervision of Low-Sulphur Marine Fuel Oil, increase supervision and inspection efforts, and urge inland river vessels and direct river-sea vessels as well as ocean-going vessels within ship emission control areas to use fuel oil that meets standards. All provinces (municipalities) shall strengthen coordination and study and introduce measures to restrict the use of high-emission vessels. Lawfully phase out high-pollution, high-energy-consumption passenger ships, obsolete transport vessels, single-hull oil tankers, and single-hull chemical tankers, deeply advance the standardization of inland river vessel types, and promote the application of clean energy such as liquefied natural gas in inland river transport vessels. Newly added or replaced operating vehicles and machinery at ports shall in principle use new energy or clean energy. Continue to advance the construction of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (Waigaoqiao) Ship Air Pollutant Emission Control Monitoring and Supervision Pilot Zone, and promote advanced technologies and successful experience in ship exhaust emission monitoring and supervision.

Deeply implement the construction tasks of the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the Ministry of Transport on Accelerating the Promotion of Shore Power Use by Ships at Berth Along the Yangtze River Main Line and the Promotion of Liquefied Natural Gas Ship Application and the Port Shore Power Layout Plan, and comprehensively complete the tasks of the Port Shore Power Layout Plan by the end of 2020. Strengthen supervision, urge ships with the necessary conditions to use shore power in accordance with regulations, and actively promote the unification of ship-shore connectors for inland river low-voltage shore power in accordance with current standards.

(11) Strictly control total coal consumption. All provinces (municipalities) shall complete the total coal consumption control targets of the Three-Year Action Plan. Strictly control the newly added installed capacity of coal-fired units, and new coal-consuming projects shall implement coal reduction substitution. Focus on reducing non-power coal use, increase the proportion of power coal use, and continue to promote the substitution of coal and fuel oil with electric energy. In 2020, the proportion of electricity received from outside the region in the Yangtze River Delta region shall increase significantly compared with 2017. Accelerate the construction of key projects for the interconnection of natural gas infrastructure and ensure they are completed and put into operation as planned. Local governments, urban gas enterprises, upstream gas supply enterprises, and the national pipeline network company shall accelerate the pace of construction of gas storage facilities. Newly added natural gas shall be given priority to urban residents and the substitution of coal-fired boilers and kilns, so as to achieve increased gas and reduced coal. "Coal-to-gas" shall adhere to the principle of determining conversion by gas availability and determining demand by supply.

(12) Deeply carry out comprehensive rectification of boilers and kilns. Increase the intensity of phasing out and rectifying coal-fired boilers and coal-fired facilities such as tea-water boilers, commercial stoves, and grain-drying equipment in accordance with laws and regulations. By the end of 2020, coal-fired boilers below 35 tons of steam per hour shall be basically phased out, and coal-fired boilers of 65 tons of steam per hour and above shall complete energy-saving and ultra-low emission transformation; gas-fired boilers shall basically complete low-nitrogen transformation. On the premise of ensuring the supply of electricity and heat, coal-fired boilers and backward small coal-fired cogeneration units within a heating radius of 15 kilometers of cogeneration units of 300,000 kilowatts and above shall complete shutdown and integration.

Implement the requirements of the Comprehensive Air Pollution Control Plan for Industrial Furnaces and Kilns and carry out comprehensive air pollution control of industrial furnaces and kilns. Accelerate the phasing out of backward production capacity, lawfully shut down industrial furnaces and kilns that do not meet standards, and implement clean and low-carbon fuel substitution. Lawfully ban coal-fired hot blast stoves; basically phase out coal-fired heating and drying furnaces (kilns) within the coverage of cogeneration heating pipe networks; accelerate the conversion of cupola furnaces with a short furnace life below 5 tons/hour in the foundry industry to electric furnaces, encourage the conversion of cupola furnaces of 10 tons/hour and below in the foundry industry to electric furnaces; accelerate the conversion of cupola furnaces in rock wool and other industries to electric furnaces; lawfully and comprehensively phase out backward production capacity such as brick and tile annular kilns; lawfully phase out a number of fixed-bed intermittent gas producers in the fertilizer industry; phase out fuel-type gas producers with a furnace chamber diameter of less than 3 meters. By the end of 2020, Jiangsu Province shall shut down all sintered brick and tile annular kilns and tunnel kiln production lines with an annual capacity of 30 million pieces and below. Comprehensively strengthen the control of fugitive emissions in key industries such as steel, building materials, non-ferrous metals, coking, and foundry; dust-producing points (devices) in production processes shall adopt measures such as sealing, enclosure, or setting up gas collection hoods; powdery materials shall be stored and transported in sealed and enclosed manners; by the end of December 2020, all provinces (municipalities) shall complete one round of investigation and rectification of fugitive emissions.

(13) Strengthen dust control. The average dustfall amount in each city shall not exceed 5 tons/month·square kilometer, and among them, cities in northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui shall not exceed 7 tons/month·square kilometer; localities are encouraged to continuously tighten the dustfall control indicators and implement zone-refined dustfall monitoring and assessment. Strengthen the control of construction dust and strictly implement the "six one hundred percent" in urban construction processes. Incorporate information on administrative penalties or administrative handling due to construction dust pollution into the credit management system of the construction market, and include those with serious circumstances in the "blacklist" of construction market entities. Strengthen the control of road dust, increase the proportion of water washing and mechanical sweeping operations on urban roads, increase the cleaning and maintenance efforts of roads at the entrances and exits of various construction sites, material storage yards, and muck disposal sites, and encourage the construction of smart road dust online monitoring systems. Strengthen the control of dust pollution at storage yards and docks, and comprehensively advance the construction of dust suppression facilities such as enclosure, covering, and automatic sprinkling at large coal and ore terminal storage yards and dry bulk cargo terminal material storage yards at major ports, as well as dust prevention facilities such as dust absorption and sprinkling for material conveying devices.

(14) Strengthen the management of the ban on straw burning. Adhere to combining prohibition with guidance and vigorously promote the comprehensive utilization of straw according to local conditions. Strengthen the primary responsibility of local governments at all levels for the ban on straw burning, establish a full-coverage grid-based supervision system, strengthen management and control with "fixed points, fixed times, fixed persons, and fixed responsibilities", and comprehensively use means such as drones, satellite remote sensing, and high-definition video monitoring to strengthen the supervision of open-air burning in all localities. Starting from September 2020, carry out special inspections of the ban on straw burning during the autumn harvest period. Focus on the four periods when straw is most likely to be burned — after work, the first half of the night, before rain, and before planting — and strengthen patrol inspections in the fields. Strictly implement the local burning supervision target responsibility assessment and reward and punishment system.

III. Strengthen Regional Joint Prevention and Control and Effectively Respond to Heavily Polluted Weather

(15) Advance the regional cooperation mechanism. Study and build a comprehensive management platform for regional ecological and environmental big data, and gradually achieve normalized data sharing and intelligent application management. Unify the environmental monitoring and supervision system, and first connect the construction of air quality monitoring station systems in cross-border areas. Build an integrated and interconnected transport information platform, support regional integrated smart logistics services, and advance the exchange and sharing of multimodal transport information. Improve the air quality forecast and prediction mechanism and the emergency linkage mechanism for responding to heavily polluted weather in the Yangtze River Delta region, and jointly do a good job in the coordinated guarantee of environmental quality for major events. Advance the implementation of unified regional air pollutant emission standards, cleaner production standards, green product standards, and environmental law enforcement norms. Improve the long-term mechanism of joint law enforcement, mutual supervision, and mutual learning in the Yangtze River Delta region, and advance the integration of the benchmark provisions for the discretion of administrative penalties for ecological and environmental violations in the region.

(16) Implement differentiated emission reduction by performance grading. All localities shall, in strict accordance with the relevant requirements of the Technical Guidelines for Formulating Emergency Emission Reduction Measures for Key Industries in Heavily Polluted Weather (2020 Revised Edition) (hereinafter referred to as the "Technical Guidelines"), comprehensively advance differentiated management and control by performance grading, encourage "advanced" enterprises with high environmental protection performance levels, spur "lagging" enterprises with low environmental protection performance levels, and use "advanced" to drive "lagging", so as to boost the high-quality development of the industry. All localities shall attach great importance to this, ensure that the relevant requirements of performance grading are communicated to every relevant enterprise, and organize the grading work well. For 39 key industries, performance grading shall be strictly implemented according to the relevant indicators of the Technical Guidelines; in principle, enterprises rated Grade A and leading enterprises may independently adopt emission reduction measures during emergency response periods for heavily polluted weather; enterprises rated Grade B and below and non-leading enterprises shall strictly implement the emission reduction measure requirements corresponding to each performance grade for different warning levels in the Technical Guidelines. For industries for which performance grading has not been explicitly implemented, the competent ecological and environmental departments of each province (municipality) may, according to the specific circumstances such as the local ambient air quality improvement needs, industrial pollution characteristics, and industry pollution control level, formulate unified performance grading standards on their own and implement differentiated emission reduction measures during emergency response periods for heavily polluted weather.

(17) Consolidate the emergency emission reduction list. All localities shall complete the performance grading work of relevant industry enterprises within their administrative areas on time, further improve the emergency emission reduction list, and achieve full coverage of gas-related enterprises. Sort out and determine, as required, the list of guarantee-type industrial enterprises that safeguard people's livelihood, safeguard the normal operation of cities, or involve national strategic industries, and include them in the emergency emission reduction list for heavily polluted weather. For small and micro gas-related enterprises with low pollutant emissions, reduce emergency control measures as appropriate, and avoid adopting shutdown and production restriction measures for residential heating boilers and life service industries that have little impact on local air quality. Emergency emission reduction measures shall be refined and implemented down to specific production lines, production processes, and production facilities to ensure operability, monitorability, and verifiability. The ecological and environmental departments of each province (municipality) shall strictly check the emergency emission reduction list, organize forces to review the list, and, after reviewing and summarizing the lists of all cities within their administrative areas, report them to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

(18) Actively respond to heavily polluted weather. Deeply implement the Emergency Linkage Plan for Heavily Polluted Weather Warning in the Yangtze River Delta Region and regularly carry out joint consultations on air quality forecast and prediction. Fully rely on the joint air quality forecast and prediction mechanism in the Yangtze River Delta region; when a large-scale heavily polluted weather process may occur in the predicted region, promptly notify all provinces (municipalities) with warning prompt information; all provinces (municipalities) shall promptly organize relevant cities to carry out regional emergency linkage, activate the heavily polluted weather emergency plan, and adopt various emergency emission reduction measures. Continuously improve the regional emergency linkage mechanism, establish a fast and effective operation mode, and ensure that all relevant cities respond promptly and effectively when regional emergency linkage is activated. Strengthen the emergency linkage and joint law enforcement of cities in northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui to reduce the frequency of heavily polluted weather.

Autumn and winter are periods of high incidence of heavily polluted weather. All localities may, based on the air quality conditions of the same period in history and in combination with air quality forecast and prediction work, judge in advance the trend of future air quality changes. When it is expected that within a relatively long period in the future, heavily polluted weather processes may occur continuously for multiple times and orange and above warnings will be frequently activated, all localities may in advance guide industries within their administrative areas whose production processes cannot be interrupted or cannot be completely shut down within a short period to adjust production plans in advance, so as to ensure that emergency emission reduction measures can be effectively implemented during the warning period.

IV. Safeguard Measures

(19) Strengthen organizational leadership. All localities shall earnestly strengthen organizational leadership, place the autumn and winter action for comprehensive air pollution control in an important position, comprehensively analyze the air quality improvement situation during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, establish bottom-line thinking, and formulate targeted measures for areas at risk of failing to complete target tasks. Comprehensively sort out the various task measures of the Three-Year Action Plan and the Action Plan for the Battle of Diesel Truck Pollution Control, analyze the implementation and completion situation item by item, establish ledgers, and check for and fill gaps. For tasks that have not yet been completed, sort out the project list, reverse the schedule, and ensure "closing out" before the end of December 2020. All localities shall fully learn from the experience and lessons of past autumn and winter actions, avoid slackening and fatigue because the progress of target tasks exceeds expectations, and relaxing supervision and lowering requirements for enterprises; also avoid retreating due to difficulty in completing target tasks, failing to take responsibility and act, and letting things drift; and even more avoid adopting simple and crude measures such as "shut down everything" and "shut down first and talk later" as well as activating heavily polluted weather warnings for a long time regardless of actual conditions in order to complete target tasks, dealing with matters perfunctorily and merely passing muster temporarily.

Each city shall refine the tasks of the action plan for comprehensive air pollution control in autumn and winter (see Annex 2 for details) level by level, decompose them to each district and county and each department, clarify the timetable and responsible persons, incorporate the main tasks into the important content of local supervision and oversight, and establish a regular scheduling mechanism for the completion of key tasks.

(20) Increase policy support. Increase fiscal and tax policy support. Encourage all localities to study and formulate subsidy policies for transport structure adjustment and the early scrapping and renewal of China III diesel vehicles, and study and establish a green channel for priority subsidies for the transformation of ship power receiving facilities. Implement the policy of exempting pure natural gas powered ships from vehicle and vessel tax.

Increase price policy support. Actively implement the work division of the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement on Jointly Promoting the Use of Shore Power by Ships at Berth of the Ministry of Transport, the National Energy Administration, and the State Grid Corporation, promote market-based purchase and sale of electricity for shore power, and reduce the cost of shore power electricity prices. Implement the differentiated electricity price policy well, implement higher prices for restricted enterprises, support all localities in expanding the scope of industries subject to differentiated electricity prices and tiered electricity prices according to actual needs, and raise the markup standards. Further innovate policy measures, encourage localities to formulate and implement differentiated electricity price policies based on pollutant emissions, and increase the enthusiasm of enterprises for air pollution control.

Increase credit and financing support. Support eligible enterprises in conducting direct financing through the bond market, with the raised funds used for air pollution control and the like. Comprehensively open the market for investment, construction, operation, and maintenance of railway dedicated lines, encourage financial institutions to increase support for financial services for railway and multimodal transport enterprises, and actively guide social capital to participate in various forms in the investment and construction of railway dedicated lines.

(21) Improve the monitoring and supervision system. All localities shall strengthen autumn and winter particulate matter component monitoring and VOCs monitoring. Particulate matter component monitoring results shall be promptly reported to the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre and shared within the region, so as to provide support for scientifically judging the causes of air pollution, objectively evaluating the effectiveness of responses to heavily polluted weather, and improving the refinement level of air pollution control and regional joint prevention and control. VOCs monitoring points shall be scientifically laid out and VOCs monitoring capabilities shall be enhanced; cities at prefecture level and above shall, on the basis of existing VOCs monitoring stations, further increase the construction of VOCs automatic monitoring stations, with each city laying out at least 1 VOCs automatic monitoring point, and cities with the necessary conditions may add monitoring points in areas such as the city's dominant wind direction, urban built-up areas, high-ozone-value areas, and major industrial parks; after VOCs automatic monitoring stations are completed, they shall promptly be connected to the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre network. Strengthen the construction of pollution source monitoring capabilities, and lawfully include elevated sources with exhaust gas outlet heights exceeding 45 meters as well as key VOCs emission sources such as petrochemical, chemical, packaging and printing, and industrial coating sources in the list of key pollutant discharging units, and comprehensively complete the installation of automatic flue gas emission monitoring facilities and their connection to the ecological and environmental department network. Accelerate the enhancement of mobile source supervision capabilities and build a transport pollution monitoring network. Advance the construction of remote online monitoring systems for heavy-duty diesel vehicles, and encourage cities with the necessary conditions to advance the installation of real-time positioning and emission monitoring devices on construction machinery. Promote the installation of automatic oil and gas recovery monitoring systems in the oil product storage, transport, and sales system. Strengthen the supervision and management of enterprise self-monitoring and third-party testing institutions, improve the quality of enterprise self-monitoring data, and, by the end of March 2021, publicly expose a number of institutions and personnel with poor monitoring data quality or even tampering with or forging monitoring data.

(22) Increase supervision and assistance efforts. All localities shall, centering on the main tasks of the autumn and winter air pollution action, integrate the forces of law enforcement, monitoring, industry experts, and the like to form specialized teams, do a good job in supervision and assistance work, and incorporate supervision into assistance. Publicize laws, regulations, policies, and standards related to air pollution control to enterprises and guide enterprises to consciously abide by the law. Carry out environmental supervision and law enforcement precisely and effectively; for enterprises with stable emissions meeting standards, standardized operation and management, and high environmental performance levels, they may be included in the positive list for supervision and law enforcement in accordance with relevant regulations; for problems discovered in supervision and law enforcement, it is necessary both to urge the relevant enterprises to earnestly fulfill their responsibilities for ecological and environmental protection, strictly enforce rectification requirements, and ensure rectification is in place, and to focus on refined management and strengthen guidance and assistance; for those with serious illegal circumstances and consequences and repeated violations, strictly investigate and punish in accordance with the law and publicly expose typical cases. Strengthen joint law enforcement, establish an information sharing mechanism, and form a joint law enforcement force. Increase the intensity of law enforcement supervision during emergency response periods for heavily polluted weather and urge enterprises to fulfill their responsibilities for emergency emission reduction in heavily polluted weather.

(23) Strengthen assessment, inspection, and accountability for discipline enforcement. Include areas with ineffective implementation of the key action tasks of comprehensive air pollution control in autumn and winter, prominent environmental problems, and markedly deteriorating ambient air quality in the scope of central ecological and environmental protection inspection. In conjunction with the second round of central ecological and environmental protection inspection work, focus on inspecting problems such as inaction and slow action as well as arbitrary actions such as "one-size-fits-all" by local Party committees, governments, and relevant departments in comprehensive air pollution control, and even dereliction of duty and failure to fulfill responsibilities; for areas with serious problems, carry out targeted and mobile special inspections as appropriate.

The Office of the Yangtze River Delta Region Air Pollution Prevention and Control Cooperation Group shall regularly schedule the progress of key tasks in all localities. During the autumn and winter period, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment shall monthly report the air quality improvement situation of all localities, and issue warning notices to cities whose quarterly air quality improvement rate fails to reach the target task or whose key tasks progress slowly or whose Air Quality Index (AQI) continues to "max out"; for cities that fail to complete the final air quality improvement target task or whose key tasks progress slowly, publicly interview the main responsible persons of the government. If tampering with or forging monitoring data is discovered, the assessment result shall be directly determined as unqualified, and responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with the law and discipline.

Annexes: 1. Air quality improvement targets for each city in the Yangtze River Delta region in the autumn and winter of 2020-2021

1. Table of measure tasks of the action plan for comprehensive air pollution control in the autumn and winter of 2020-2021 for each city in the Yangtze River Delta

Copied to: General Office of the State Council; Ministry of Natural Resources, People's Bank of China, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, China Meteorological Administration, National Railway Administration, Civil Aviation Administration of China; Office of the Leading Group for Integrated Development of the Yangtze River Delta; and the ecological and environmental departments (bureaus) of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui.

Issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on October 30, 2020