VOCs Emissions included in air pollution control efforts: All local special actions have been fully launched
The emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been included in the total control targets during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. The State Council issued the "Comprehensive Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction during the 13th Five-Year Plan". Thus, all regions across the country began to fight against this "invisible killer". As of now, many places have started a new journey to combat air pollution from multiple perspectives such as policies, economy, monitoring, and law enforcement.
Following PM2.5, the treatment of VOCs has become another key point in air pollution prevention and control. To implement the VOCs treatment tasks, China has successively released documents such as the "Action Plan for Reducing Volatile Organic Compounds in Key Industries" and the "Comprehensive Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction during the 13th Five-Year Plan", with a particular focus on improving the VOCs treatment situation across the country.
On April 21st this year, at the April regular press conference of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Director Tian Weiyong of the Environmental Supervision Bureau stated that the Ministry of Environmental Protection will take five measures to solve the problems of VOCs treatment. First, strengthen source control and limit the raw materials of various enterprises, using low-VOCs raw materials; second, proceed from points to areas, first control and manage industries with large VOCs emissions such as petrochemicals, organic chemicals, and packaging printing; third, focus on key areas and start control from critical parts; fourth, improve law enforcement level and efficiency; fifth, increase the intensity of information disclosure, encourage public participation, and form a virtuous cycle of supervision and being supervised.
Since the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been included in the total control targets during the "13th Five-Year Plan", local governments have shown great attention to VOCs treatment. So, what countermeasures have each province and municipality taken?
Guangdong Province
In response to the "13th Five-Year Plan Comprehensive Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction", the Environmental Protection Department of Guangdong Province drafted the "13th Five-Year Volatile Organic Compounds Emission Reduction Work Plan of Guangdong Province (Draft for Public Comment)". Based on the release of the "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Remediation of Volatile Organic Compounds in Key Industries of Guangdong Province (2014-2017)" at the beginning of last year, the provincial environmental protection department compiled the list of key regulated enterprises for VOCs, and implemented the "one enterprise, one strategy" remediation strategy. Starting from this year, Guangdong Province will make whether the VOCs emissions meet the total control requirements a prerequisite for environmental impact assessment approval and incorporate it into the management of pollutant discharge permits. As one of the 16 key regions in China for total control of volatile organic compounds emissions in the "13th Five-Year Plan", by 2020, Guangdong Province aims to reduce VOCs emissions by 18% compared to the level in 2015.
Shanghai City
The latest news indicates that the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau has just issued a notice regarding the acceleration of the review and subsidy of industrial volatile organic compound (VOC) treatment projects. This notice aligns with the requirements of the "Shanghai Industrial VOCs Treatment and Emission Reduction Plan" and the "Detailed Rules for the Special Support Operations of Pollution Control Projects for Industrial VOCs Emission Reduction Enterprises". The aim is to ensure that existing VOCs treatment measures can quickly achieve emission reduction effects. The notice clearly states that efforts should be made to accelerate the initial review of completed VOCs treatment projects, complete on-site monitoring and online monitoring facilities acceptance promptly, actively cooperate in the technical verification work, and strengthen the post-management of completed treatment projects.
Wuxi, Jiangsu Province
The "Wuxi Implementation Measures for the Implementation of the Jiangsu Province Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations" came into effect on May 1st, and it made detailed provisions for VOCs treatment. Immediately after that, on May 7th, relevant personnel from the Wuxi Environmental Protection Bureau disclosed that Wuxi will adopt more systematic, precise and strict measures in the treatment of VOCs pollution. According to the plan, Wuxi is expected to complete 189 VOCs treatment projects by 2017 and arrange a total of 473 projects by 2020, to comprehensively reduce the total emission of VOCs. Therefore, Wuxi has launched the "VOCs Treatment Special Action Plan", clearly requiring that the comprehensive VOCs综合治理 of chemical industrial parks and key enterprises be completed by the end of 2017. Relevant personnel also introduced that Wuxi will actively adjust the industrial structure and withdraw a batch of low-end and low-efficiency production capacity.
Zhejiang Province
Zhejiang Province has launched a new journey in air pollution control and haze reduction under the theme of VOCs pollution treatment, officially declaring war on the "invisible killers" of the atmosphere. This year, Zhejiang Province will formulate emission standards for atmospheric pollutants in the shoe-making and industrial coating processes, and promote the reduction of VOCs emissions by 42,000 tons in key industries such as petrochemicals, chemicals, coating, and printing. By 2020, the VOCs emissions in the province will be reduced by 20% compared to the current level. Moreover, the charging for VOCs emissions is gradually getting on the right track. The province will continue to focus on the treatment of VOCs from industrial sources, accelerate the construction of monitoring systems, and increase the intensity of supervision and law enforcement. Among them, Ningbo City is regarded as the benchmark for VOCs governance in Zhejiang Province. This year, it plans to invest an additional 1.5 billion yuan to complete the treatment of 350 enterprises.
Hubei Province
Local VOCs governance policies have been continuously implemented, and Hubei Province has also followed the footsteps of the VOCs reduction actions and issued the "2017 Hubei Province Air Pollution Prevention and Control Work Implementation Plan". The document requires strict implementation of the "Action Plan for Reducing Volatile Organic Compounds in Key Industries" and the "Notice on Organizing the Implementation of the Action Plan for Reducing Volatile Organic Compounds in Key Industries", and formulates and implements annual work plans. The province will continue to deeply implement comprehensive综合整治 of volatile organic compounds in industries such as petrochemicals， chemicals， industrial painting， and packaging printing， and propose key implementation contents such as industrial VOCs governance throughout the province. At the same time， it will do a good job in eliminating backward production capacity and urging heavy-pollution enterprises to relocate for environmental protection.
From a broad perspective， China has "confidence" in VOCs governance. From a small detail perspective， China has "depth" in VOCs governance. The atmosphere for VOCs governance across the country continues to improve， and the governance actions in various regions are promoted from multiple aspects such as policies， subsidies， monitoring， and law enforcement. Air pollution control， whether it is PM2.5 or VOCs， will ultimately be the "badge" of the victory in the "Blue Sky Defense War".
