“By July, 112,000 Environmental Impact Assessment projects had been approved nationwide, with a total investment of 11.4 trillion yuan and  443,000 projects were registered and filed. Among these, infrastructure construction, energy industry, projects connected with people’s livelihood and small and micro enterprises were making steady progress. The remarkable restorative growth in those industries was noticed.” Said Liu Zhiquan, director general from Department of Environmental Impact Assessment and Emission Management of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in a recent press conference.

“Overall planning has been made, for boosting social and economic development and promoting ecological environmental protection since this year. Meanwhile, coordinated efforts have been made to advance stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas , among which involves developing and implementing positive list for environmental impact assessment approval. At the same time, we have replaced registration programs, which originally accounted for 80% of overall environmental impact assessment, with the filings which could be solved in 10 minutes and much more efficient. During the pandemic, we made proper guidance for the work of environmental impact assessment and emergency support services to promote pandemic prevention and control, and facilitate the resumption of work and production ” Liu also said.

By carrying out measures like “streamlining administration and delegating powers” in the area of conducting environmental impact assessment, the investment growth in “two-new-type-and-one-major” projects, like major projects including the new-type infrastructure construction, urbanization, transportation and water conservancy projects turns out robust. According to statistics, in the first half of this year, a total of 2,222 transportation environmental impact assessment projects were approved nationwide, with a total investment of 1.95 trillion yuan, which increased by 9.4% year on year. There were 1,373 approvals for water conservancy projects, with a total investment of 254.42 billion yuan, which increased by 16.6% year on year. Industries related to new infrastructure sector have witnessed significant growth, becoming a strong driver of the economy in the first half of the year and for some time to come, with the number of filings for 5G communication sector grew nearly 30 times year on year; investments in artificial intelligence and charging pile projects respectively achieved a growth of 12.4% and 14.3% year on year; and investment of urban rail transit projects met a growth of 164.3% year on year.

It is apparent that the development trend of energy industry is going green. In the first half of the year, the environmental impact assessment of 36 thermal power projects were approved and 12.8 billion yuan were invested. Among these projects, 19 are newly built and 17 are technologically upgraded, and all of them have characteristics of ultra-low emission, saving energy and increasing efficiency. Importantly, there were no traditional coal-fired power generation projects. The environmental impact assessment of 375 coal-mining and processing projects were approved, which decreased by 47.1% year on year; and that of 277 marine oil and gas projects were approved, decreased by 2.5% year on year.