306
B. Zhang
conditions, and embodies the profound meaning of actively and steadily promoting
the development of ecological civilization. This constitutes an important part of the
Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization and we should attach high importance
to its study.
2 Shandong Province’s Practice of Promoting
Transformation and Upgrading of Traditional Industries
with Environmental Standards
1. Background
In Shandong Province that’s suffering from an acute shortage of water resources,
the paper industry plays a major part in water consumption and contamination.
In 2002, the industry’s fresh water consumption and chemical oxygen demand
(COD) emissions exceeded 50% of the total in the province, while contributing
merely 3% to the industrial value-added output. Heavy contamination and high
water consumption constitute the bottleneck that hampers the sustainable development of the paper industry. Since the mid-1990s, Shandong Province has actively
explored solutions to the problem of heavy contamination in the paper industry.
Between 1996 and 2002, administrative measures were adopted to shut down 472
small-scale and heavily-contaminating straw-pulp paper production lines, which
achieved initial success in curbing the trend of aggravating pollution. However, the
administrative measures alone have gradually exposed the problems such as lack
of predictability, easy rebound, and high social costs. According to statistics, the
shutdown of 41 straw-pulp production lines between 2001 and 2002 laid waste to
fixed assets worth RMB 1 billion and left tens of thousands of employees laid off,
placing great pressure on social stability. How to improve environmental quality
while ensuring economic growth and social stability has become a tricky problem
facing the industrial transformation and regional development.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Shandong Province set the goal of
building a moderately prosperous society ahead of schedule by 2012. Back then,
all water in Shandong Province was contaminated. Even pollution-resistant carp
and crucian cannot survive in the river, raising concerns about the safety of the
people on both banks of the river. Under such circumstances, the environmental
protection department proposed that “the stable growth of common fishes” should
be a prerequisite for completing the building of a moderately prosperous society.
The proposal was accepted by the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and the
Shandong Provincial People’s Government and it’s planned to achieve the goal in
2010.
At the time, Shandong boasted the second largest economy in China, with traditional industries accounting for a large proportion. To achieve the goal of water environment governance for “stable growth of common fishes,” the primary task was to
B. Zhang
conditions, and embodies the profound meaning of actively and steadily promoting
the development of ecological civilization. This constitutes an important part of the
Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization and we should attach high importance
to its study.
2 Shandong Province’s Practice of Promoting
Transformation and Upgrading of Traditional Industries
with Environmental Standards
1. Background
In Shandong Province that’s suffering from an acute shortage of water resources,
the paper industry plays a major part in water consumption and contamination.
In 2002, the industry’s fresh water consumption and chemical oxygen demand
(COD) emissions exceeded 50% of the total in the province, while contributing
merely 3% to the industrial value-added output. Heavy contamination and high
water consumption constitute the bottleneck that hampers the sustainable development of the paper industry. Since the mid-1990s, Shandong Province has actively
explored solutions to the problem of heavy contamination in the paper industry.
Between 1996 and 2002, administrative measures were adopted to shut down 472
small-scale and heavily-contaminating straw-pulp paper production lines, which
achieved initial success in curbing the trend of aggravating pollution. However, the
administrative measures alone have gradually exposed the problems such as lack
of predictability, easy rebound, and high social costs. According to statistics, the
shutdown of 41 straw-pulp production lines between 2001 and 2002 laid waste to
fixed assets worth RMB 1 billion and left tens of thousands of employees laid off,
placing great pressure on social stability. How to improve environmental quality
while ensuring economic growth and social stability has become a tricky problem
facing the industrial transformation and regional development.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Shandong Province set the goal of
building a moderately prosperous society ahead of schedule by 2012. Back then,
all water in Shandong Province was contaminated. Even pollution-resistant carp
and crucian cannot survive in the river, raising concerns about the safety of the
people on both banks of the river. Under such circumstances, the environmental
protection department proposed that “the stable growth of common fishes” should
be a prerequisite for completing the building of a moderately prosperous society.
The proposal was accepted by the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and the
Shandong Provincial People’s Government and it’s planned to achieve the goal in
2010.
At the time, Shandong boasted the second largest economy in China, with traditional industries accounting for a large proportion. To achieve the goal of water environment governance for “stable growth of common fishes,” the primary task was to