VIII. Enhancement of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection

The most rigorous systems for farmland protection and land efficiency will be enforced, the intensive and efficient utilization of resources will be advanced, environmental protection and ecological construction will be intensified, and the capabilities of sustainable development will be strengthened. The region will take the lead in building a resource-conserving and environmentally-friendly society.

1. Utilize Land Efficiently and Intensively

The general and annual plans for land use will be strictly enforced, and the goals of protecting arable land and basic farmland will be substantially attained. The scales of the arable land occupied for construction and of the supplemented arable land will be integrally administered, parts of the low-efficiency garden plots and hill slopes will be actively renovated and developed to supplement arable land, the effort of renovating and re-farming land will be intensified, and the balance between arable land occupation and supplementation will be strictly kept. The region will explore the scientific development road that provides strict protection of arable land, moderate land occupation for construction, and high efficiency of land use will be explored, and innovate the pattern of land administration, so as to develop into an demonstration region for the national trial of efficient and intensive land utilization. The effort to deal with idle land for construction use will be intensified to bring it back into active use. The river mouth and coastal swamps will be effectively protected, the land obtained through filling and embanking seas and the beaches will be utilized for non-agricultural construction in a rational and orderly way, and the occupation of existing arable land will be reduced. The region will reinforce the adjustment and control of land demand, practice more stringent policies and standards for land supply, land use, and market access, adopt the policy of discriminate land supply, actively push forward the upgrade and renovation of industrial parks following the principles of industry concentration, reasonable distribution, and intensive land use, and advance intensive land utilization in transportation infrastructure and urban and rural construction. The region will explore the reform of the land use review and approval system, simplify the procedures, and strengthen the supervision. And the region will experiment establishing a mechanism for land income adjustment, and employ economic means to promote the level of intensive land utilization.

2. Energetically Develop Circular Economy

Sticking to the guideline of emphasizing both development and conservation but prioritizing conservation, following the principles of lower consumption, reuse, and conversion into resources, the region will make strenuous efforts in conserving energy, water, and materials, boost the comprehensive utilization of resources, thoroughly enforce clean production, and develop an economic development mode characterized by low input, low consumption, low emission but high efficiency. The target responsibility system will be enforced, and any new project will be subject to an energy conservation review. The administration of the key enterprises and organizations for energy conservation will be emphasized, the technical renovation for energy conservation of the industrial, construction, and transportation sectors will accelerated, and the energy consumption for each unit of GDP will be lowered to 0.57tec. The development of comprehensive resource utilization projects endorsed by national policies will be encouraged, and the projects generating electric power with garbage and residual heat will be facilitated. The administration of power demand will be intensified, and a long-term efficient mechanism for power conservation administration will be established. Total amount control and quota management of water use will be carried out, and by 2020, the recycling rate of the water for industrial use will reach 80%. The cities and towns will construct their systems for utilization of recycled water. The region will formulate the plan for enforcing clean production, and direct and supervise the effort of enterprises to practice clean production. It will formulate the plan for developing circular economy, actively explore local price and financial policies conducive to resource-conserving and circular economic development, build a batch of industrial parks meeting the requirements of circular economic development, and shape resource-efficient and resource-recycling industrial chains. And the region will encourage the production and use of the products that conserve energy, water, and materials, renewable products, and energy-efficient and environmentally friendly cars, and foster healthy, civilized, resource-efficient modes of production and consumption.

3. Intensify Pollution Prevention and Control

Sticking to the guideline of focusing on prevention and enforcing comprehensive control, the region will improve environmental management, innovate the mechanism for environmental management, and substantially solve the outstanding problems that jeopardize human health and affect economic and social development. Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission. The industrial distribution will be scientifically planned, and it will be ensured that pollution will be spread along with industry transfer. The industrial enterprises will be guided into the parks and areas, and the wastewaters will be treated collectively. The construction of wastewater treatment facilities and the matching pipeline networks in cities will be accelerated, and the monitoring of the operation of the existing facilities will be tightened. The planning and construction of urban garbage disposal facilities will be expedited, and the garbage collection and transportation system will be improved. The supervision and monitoring of the water quality at provincial boundaries as well as the supervision and management of pollution emission at river mouths will be stiffened. The administration of water environment will be strengthened. Especially, the cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will be enhanced to jointly improve the integral water quality of the Pearl River Delta, reduce the overall water pollution, and advance the level of wastewater treatment. The construction and protection of drinking water sources will be strengthened to ensure drinking water safety. Land and marine administration will be integrated to control offshore pollution. The system for monitoring and controlling atmospheric compound pollution will be established and improved, and vigorous efforts will be made to solve the dusty haze problem. The superficial pollution of agriculture will be arduously controlled, with the focus on the control of the pollution of livestock, poultry, and aquatic cultivation. The treatment and disposal of solid waste will be enhanced, the soil pollution caused by permanent organic pollutants and heavy metals will be effectively contained and handled with great strengths, and the quality of farmland will be improved, so as to ensure the safety of agricultural production. The region will formulate more rigid environmental standards, integrate the construction of environmental infrastructure, encourage the innovation and experiments of environmental administration mechanisms, take full advantage of economic means such as price, government expenditure, and finance for the purpose of environmental protection, and take the lead in establishing an efficient mechanism for environmental administration which defines clear responsibilities of government, enterprises, and citizens. By 2012, the rate of urban wastewater treatment will reach around 80%, the rate of harmless treatment of urban living garbage will reach around 85%, and the compliance rate of industrial waster discharge will reach around 90%; By 2020, the three figures will reach over 90%, 100%, and 100% respectively.

4. Strengthen Ecological and Environmental Protection

The region will optimize its ecological safety situation, and construct a regional system of ecological safety mainly consisting of the waterways of the Pear River, the major coastal greenbelts, and the rolling hills in the north. It will preserve the important and sensitive ecological function areas, strengthen the construction of the nature reserves and swamp reserve projects, rehabilitate the ecological systems of river mouths and offshore waters, boost the construction of the coastal shelter forests and mangrove projects and the riverbank shelter forest projects, improve forestry management, advance the quality and functions of forests, and maintain the structural completeness of the ecological system. It will intensify the construction and preservation of the conserving forests at the water sources of the Pearl River valley, and integrally control soil erosion. It will facilitate the construction of urban landscape woods, common greens in downtowns, and fringe greenbelts of cities, promote the integration of urban and rural forestation, speed up the construction of the greenbelts along roads and railways, safeguard the open greens like farmland preservation areas and farmland woods, and shape networked regional ecological corridors. And it will implement graded control for ecological protection, and explore an ecological compensation mechanism applicable to the entire river basin and the entire region. By 2020, the per capita area of parks and greens for urban residents will reach 15 square meters, 900,000 hectares of public ecological woods will be cultivated, and 82 natural reserves will be established.