Damage compensation 丨 a reform of "endorsement" of the ecological environment

"Environmental Economy" magazine reporter Wang Wei

From the pilot of the 7 provinces and cities in 2015 to the trial of the country in 2018, the reform of the ecological environmental damage compensation system has come all the way. The visible changes are the number of cases from 27 to the 113,000 pieces as of the end of 2021. The invisible changes are these years. The concept of "environmental price and damage responsibility" is becoming more popular. Reform, still continuing!

Who pollutes, who govern, who is damaged, who is responsible. However, in the past many environmental events, due to the lack of institutional, the ecological environmental damage has not been compensated in full, and the damaged ecological environment has not been repaired in time. As a result, the "government pays".

Water, land, forests, mountains, grasslands, wasteland, beach coating, etc., have ecological functions and values. However, due to the lack of specific claims in the system, no one stretched for righteousness after being destroyed, and eventually they were all "victims of the masses."

However, these are past. With the launch of the reform of the 2015 ecological environmental damage compensation system, the ecological environment has never been "spokesperson", and everything is changing.

Proposal of reform

Since the reform and opening up, after decades of economic development, the people's material and cultural living standards have been greatly improved. At the same time, the situation of environmental pollution and ecological destruction was once severe.

The Minjiang pollution incident, the ecological destruction incident of the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, and the pollution of Zijin Mining ... Behind this shocking environmental issue, even if the responsible person is held accountable for administrative penalties, or even criminal liability, the legal system is missing due to ecological environmental damage compensation compensation compensation. The damaged ecological environment cannot be repaired in time, and the rights and interests of the state and the public cannot be effectively protected.

For a period of time, the problem of "corporate pollution, mass harm, government pay", "low illegal cost, and high cost of law", and it is time to solve it.

The Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Party opened a magnificent ecological civilization system reform, and it clearly put forward the compensation system strictly for those responsible for the damage to the ecological environment. On March 24, 2015, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China reviewed and approved the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization", and listed the "Ecological Environment Damage Compensation" system as a major system as a system of ecological civilization system. In September of the same year, the central government reviewed and approved the overall plan and related supporting solutions of the ecological civilization system reform, namely a "General Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System" and 6 special reform plans to deploy and build an ecological civilization system. The ecological environmental damage compensation system is one of the six special schemes of the "1+6" reform plan.

At this point, the reform of the compensation system of ecological environmental damage is ready to go!

7 provincial and municipal pilots, explore the restoration and compensation system for the establishment of ecological environment damage

The official launch of the reform stems from a document.

In December 2015, the Central General Office and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Pilot Plan for the Reform of Ecological Environmental Damage Compensation System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Pilot Plan") to make comprehensive plans and deployment of the reform of the ecological environmental damage compensation system in my country in the future.

The overall requirements of the reform are to gradually clarify the scope of compensation, responsible subjects, claims subjects, and damage compensation solutions to solve the approach to the pilot. And the compensation system, accelerate the construction of ecological civilization.

The goal of reform is, the first step: from 2015 to 2017, select some provinces to carry out pilots; second step: starting from 2018, trial in the country; third step: by 2020, strive to build a clear responsibility nationwide clearly, clearly clearly build a clear responsibility for clearly. The system of unblocking channels, technical specifications, strong guarantees, compensation in place, and repairing effective ecological environmental damage compensation systems.

The pilot content of the reform mainly includes the scope of claiming compensation, determining the obligations of compensation, clarifying the right holders of compensation, conducting compensation consultations, improving the rules of compensation litigation, strengthening the implementation and supervision of ecological environment restoration and damages, evaluation of the evaluation of ecological environment damage, and strengthening the ecological environment Eight aspects such as damage compensation funds.

In April 2016, the State Council authorized Jilin, Shandong, Jiangsu, Hunan, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Yunnan 7 provinces (cities) people's governments to conduct reform pilots in their own administrative areas as the right holder of compensation for ecological environmental damage. The first thing to think about in front of everyone is: What is ecological environmental damage? In what situation is investigating the liability for ecological environmental damage compensation? How to investigate?

According to the "Pilot Plan", ecological environmental damage refers to the adverse changes of environmental elements such as the environment and the atmospheric, surface water, groundwater, soil and other environmental elements caused by the ecology, and the ecosystem function of the ecosystems composed of the above elements. Degenerate.

According to a person who participated in the drafting, in the process of drafting, everyone's definition of the definition of ecological environment was controversial, that is, the damage of the ecological environment refers to the function of ecological service, or only environmental elements, biological elements, or two include two two two, or two include two two two, or two include two two two, or two include two two. By. Finally, the drafters adopt the definition of environmental elements, biological elements, and ecosystem functions. This definition is ultimately used by the central reform plan.

The "Pilot Plan" also listed three situations that investigated the liability for the liability for ecological environmental damage in accordance with the law: 1. Those who have occurred in large and above emergencies; 2. Functional areas and prohibiting environmental pollution and ecological destruction incidents in the development zone; 3. Those who seriously affect the ecological environment incidents. Regarding how to investigate, the "Pilot Plan" innovatively proposed two major ways of compensation for ecological environmental damage and litigation. That is, the right holder of compensation can adopt the method of negotiation and the compensation obligor to reach a compensation agreement. If the negotiation is not a compensation right holder shall file a lawsuit in time, it may also file a lawsuit directly without the consultation procedure. There are also two concepts here. According to the "Pilot Plan", the compensation right holder refers to the provincial government of the pilot local government after the authorization of the State Council. Units or individuals that cause ecological environmental damage.

Let's look at this pilot period, the first case in China to negotiate a case to reach an ecological environmental damage compensation agreement.

From 2012 to 2015, a fertilizer company at Guiyang entrusted the EMB labor company to undertake the clearance work of waste plants, but the latter illegally dumped the waste plaster to the Dayingtian plot of Xizheng County. After identification and evaluation, the amount of ecological environmental damage caused by 8.916 million yuan. In January 2017, with the participation of the Guizhou Provincial Lawyers Association, the former department designated by the rights of compensation to the former Guizhou Provincial Department of Environmental Protection and compensation obligations (the above 2 companies) reached a compensation agreement. Subsequently, the compensation right holder and the obligations jointly submitted the judicial confirmation application to the Qingzhen Municipal People's Court. Before December 2017, the enterprise was repaired by itself. The case is also the first case of ecological environmental damage compensation confirmed by the people's court.

How to understand the consultation? Why create a consultation mechanism in the reform? The consultation is similar to mediation, and it is different from mediation. Consultation is mentioned by the compensation right holder. It can only be negotiated within a certain scope and cannot do too much. There is a limited time limit, and it cannot be "long -term negotiation."

In addition, negotiations can help avoid problems such as "time -consuming and labor -intensive" and waste of judicial resources caused by a single lawsuit. After investigation, the right of compensation found that the ecological environment was damaged, and required repairs or claims. According to the ecological environmental damage appraisal report, the compensation obligations were negotiated, the compensation agreement was reached, and the timely urging them to repair the ecological environment can improve the repair efficiency and effectiveness. ,save time.

There is also a lawsuit, which is the case of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government sue Dezida (Nanjing) dyeing Co., Ltd.'s ecological environmental damage compensation. This case is also the first lawsuit of the nation's first case in the nation during the pilot period.

In the case of knowing that the opponent's abolition of sulfuric acid disposal qualifications, Destida (Nanjing) dye Co., Ltd. still handed over the company's waste sulfuric acid to it. The Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Federation filed an environmental pollution civil public interest lawsuit, requiring the defendant to compensate for environmental restoration costs 24.2829 million yuan. Later, the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government participated in the lawsuit after applying for the plaintiff. The first trial of the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court supported the two plaintiff's claims.

Professor Wang Canfa, a professor of China University of Political Science and Law, said in the case: The Pilot Program did not specify whether the litigation of the ecological environmental damage compensation filed by the people's government was a public interest lawsuit. After accepting the case, the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court accepted the application of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government. It was used as a common plaintiff for environmental public interest lawsuits. Environmental and social organizations cooperate with the people's government to conduct a new model of environmental public interest litigation. From the perspective of reform and innovation, encouragement should be given in the case of continuous development and improvement of environmental public interest litigation system.

It is understood that after the "Pilot Plan" was issued in 2015, each pilot place attaches great importance to the establishment of the reform of the reform work, the pilot implementation plan for the reform of the compensation system of the ecological environment damage in the region, explore and improve the relevant system, formulate 75 supporting management documents for a total of 75 supporting management documents Essence Each pilot place also uses cases as a solid progress, and actively carried out claims. For more than a year, it took a total of 27 related cases, involving a total amount of about 638 million yuan.

It can be said that in the pilot place, as the right holder of compensation, the government designated the relevant departments or institutions to be responsible for specific responsibilities, through negotiations and lawsuits, so that the offenders who caused the ecological environment to damage were liable for compensation, actively carried out ecological restoration, effectively protected the ecological environment, verified the verification The correctness of the reform provides a practical foundation for the trial ecological environmental damage compensation system across the country.

Soon, the reform ushered in a new stage.

National trial, a system of compensation for ecological environmental damage by 2020 by 2020

On the basis of summing up the experience of reform pilot piloting, in December 2017, the Central Office and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Reform Plan for Ecological Environmental Damage Compensation System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Reform Plan"). Trial in the country.

The "Reform Plan" and the "Pilot Plan" are in the same vein and the same goal, that is, by 2020, strive to build a system of compensation system for ecological environmental damage with clear responsibility, smooth channels, technical specifications, strong guarantees, compensation in place, and effective compensation. Essence

On June 5, 2020, Yang Qingzhang, then Mayor of Puyang, wore a white shirt and a party emblem on the plaintiff. His identity is the legal representative of the Puyang Municipal Government. He wants to sue Shandong Liaocheng Defeng Chemical Co., Ltd. The reason is that the company's dangerous waste was transferred in violation of regulations, which led to severe pollution in the ecological environment of the water body in Puyang. After two negotiations with the obligations of compensation, the Puyang Municipal Government, who was the right holder of compensation, filed a compensation lawsuit against the Puyang Intermediate People's Court. This case is also the first litigation of ecological environmental damage compensation mentioned by the municipal government as the plaintiff by the municipal government. In the previous impression, the government's lawsuits involved in the environment are basically "civilian officials". It is really rarely that "officials and publicity people" like this have attracted countless attention for a while. The reason why the Puyang Municipal Government can be the plaintiff is a new change in the "Reform Plan": the scope of compensation rights is expanded from the provincial government to the municipal government (including district and county -level governments under the jurisdiction of municipalities).

It is understood that the right holders during the pilot period are limited to the provincial government. In practice, the provincial and cities found that regardless of the negotiations, signed compensation agreements, or applying for judicial confirmation, a large number of legal documents involved in the middle need to be implemented in the name of the provincial government, which virtually increases coordination. In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the former Ministry of Environmental Protection also mentioned when interpreting the "Reform Plan": "The case of ecological environmental damage compensation mainly occurred at the municipal level level. The appraisal agency and the degree of professionalization of cases have a certain basis, which can play an active role in carrying out the reform of the compensation system of ecological environmental damage. In order to improve the efficiency of ecological environmental damage compensation work, it is necessary to expand the compensation right holder. "

After that, the work characteristics of the work of ecological environmental damage occurred in the front line and investigated and punished at the grassroots level. Under the premise of the obligations of the compensation obligations, some provinces and cities also moderately expanded the main scope of negotiations and negotiations. For example, Jiangsu Province encourages the dispatch agencies of the district and municipal ecological and environmental bureau as the organizer to launch an investigation and conduct claims. The authorized county -level governments and their relevant functional departments can be used as the main body of the compensation agreement and the main body of the judicial confirmation.

Compared with the "Pilot Plan", the "Reform Plan" another obvious change is to stipulate the "pre -consultation" procedure and clearly clarify the compensation agreement reached by the consultation. The compensation agreement enforces the effectiveness.

Ecological environmental damage compensation consultation is an institutional innovation in the process of reform. In the pilot practice, various localities found that because the administrative organs have greater advantages in terms of management experience, information mastery, technical capabilities, etc. At the same time, the form of consultation is more flexible and efficient. Efficiency, save judicial resources and time costs. Therefore, through the practical experience in the pilot, the negotiation was determined as a pre -procedure for litigation during the comprehensive trial of reform.

In addition, the "Reform Plan" also authorizes factors such as environmental pollution, ecological destruction, and social impact caused by comprehensive consideration of various regions, refine the specific situation of starting the compensation of ecological environmental damage, and reduce the threshold for launching compensation. According to reports, since the trial of the country, the localities have conducted positive explorations on claims. Jilin, Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places have included environmental pollution and ecological destruction incidents in the scope of ecological protection. Environmental criminal cases are included in the launch of claims. Yunnan, Qinghai, Gansu and other places have clearly incorporated damage to the start -up claims above a specific value.

The active practice of the local area is the inexhaustible motivation to promote reform. In order to better summarize local practical experience, in September 2020, 11 central and state agencies including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Opinions on Several Specific Issues on Promoting the Reform of Ecological Environmental Damage Compensation Systems" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"). This is a heavy document launched at the key nodes of reform, focusing on the 18th difficulties that focus on the reform at the time.

For example, in response to the scope and channels of case clues, the problem of "launching difficulties" for ecological environmental damage compensation is clear, and the "Opinions" clearly investigate the case around the following 7 aspects of clues: (1) the central and provincial ecological environmental protection inspectors found that it is needed to find that need Ecological environmental damage compensation is carried out; (2) emergencies; (3) cases of resource and environmental administrative penalties that occur in ecological environmental damage; (4) cases suspected of constituting the crime of destroying environmental resources; The key ecological functional areas determined in the space planning, and the incident of environmental pollution and ecological destruction prohibit development zones prohibit development areas; (6) Case clues found in various resources and environmental actions and law enforcement inspections; (7) petition complaints, reports and media exposure involved Case clues.

For another example, in response to the difficulty of "negotiation failure", the "Opinions" clarified the main situation of the negotiations: (1) the compensation obligor clearly stated that the response opinion was explicitly stated that the negotiation or did not submit the response within the time of the consultation letter; (2) the compensation obligation obligations If a person does not participate in the consultation meeting or withdrawn from the consultation meeting for no reason; (3) The negotiation meeting has been held three times, and the compensation right holder and the designated department or institution that they are designated believes that the consultation is difficult to reach an agreement; Agreement; (5) Compensation right holders and the designated departments or institutions their designated departments or agencies believe that negotiations are not unusable. In addition, the "Opinions" also gives opinions on the investigation of ecological environmental damage, appraisal evaluation, judicial confirmation, connection with public interest litigation, ecological environment restoration, fund management, and repair effect assessment.

The smooth implementation of the reform is inseparable from the efforts of other relevant departments. During the trial period of the country, the Ministry of Justice jointly issued guiding documents such as the "Registration and Review of Environmental Damage to Judicial Appraisal Institutions" and other guiding documents to regulate the registration and management of judicial appraisal agencies for environmental damage; Several provisions (trial), the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Interpretation of Several Issues on the Application of Laws on Prosecutor's Public Interest Litigation Cases", which made special regulations on the scope of the scope of the case, the case, jurisdiction, the form of evidence, and the liability for proof. Clarify the lawsuit of ecological environmental damage compensation. 9 departments including the Ministry of Finance and other 9 departments jointly issued the "Administrative Measures for Ecological Environmental Damage Compensation Fund (Trial)" to clarify the situation of ecological environment damage compensation funds that cannot be repaired or fully repaired, and the obligations of compensation obligations do not fulfill their obligations or do not fully fulfill their obligations. As a government's non -tax revenue, the funds paid by the government have all paid the local treasury of the designated departments or institutions at the designated department or institution, and were included in general public budget management.

It is the introduction of this series of policy documents and judicial interpretations that make the progress of the reform of the ecological environmental damage compensation system is generally smooth. As of November 2020, more than 2,700 cases of compensation for ecological environmental damage across the country, involving compensation for more than 5.3 billion yuan.

Reform stood at a new starting point.

Reform will continue to advance

In November 2021, at the routine press conference held by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Director of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Director of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, told the media: " Each departments have initially established a system of clear responsibility, smooth channels, smooth technical specifications, strong guarantees, compensation in place, and effective ecological environmental damage compensation systems. The practice of compensation cases and promoting the restoration of the damaged ecological environment have achieved significant results, and the phased goals have been completed. "

The Regulations and Standards Division of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment provided a set of data to the "Environmental Economy" to prove. As of the end of 2021, there have been about 11,300 cases of compensation for ecological environmental damage across the country, involving compensation amounts of more than 11.7 billion yuan, promoting the repair of more than 36.957 million cubic meters of soil, 61.552 million square meters of forest land, 2.138 million square meters of farmland, and surface water bodies. 369 million cubic meters, groundwater 1.663 million cubic meters, 20 million square meters of wetland, and 89.825 million tons of solid waste.

According to statistics, after three years of national trials, the number of new ecological environmental damage compensation cases in 2021 has exceeded the sum of 2018-2020, and the results of reform have gradually emerged.

Reform has also increasingly showing new weather. According to the "Reform Plan", local departments such as natural resources, housing and urban and rural construction, water conservancy, and agricultural and rural areas must also carry out claims within their respective duties. In the past, ecological environmental damage compensation cases were more led by the ecological environment department. Now more and more cases have appeared in other departments.

According to the official website of the Nantong Water Resources Bureau, on January 20, 2022, the Water Resources Bureau of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province organized a meeting of compensation for ecological environmental damage compensation for illegal sand mining in Xu Moumou and others. At the meeting, Fan Moumou, an obligation of compensation, reached an ecological damage compensation agreement. This is the first case of the Jiangsu water conservancy system and the first illegal sand mining ecological environmental damage compensation agreement in the national water conservancy system.

According to the official website of Deyang City Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, on March 17, 2022, under the supervision and guidance of the People's Procuratorate of Deyang City, Sichuan Province, the bureau, Luo Moumou and Yang Moumou The damage conducted compensation consultations, and signed a compensation agreement on the spot to pay 10 million yuan in compensation for ecological damage. Ecological restoration will be completed before June 30 this year. This is the first case of mine -related damage compensation reached by Deyang City through negotiations, and it is also the largest case in the field of natural resources in Sichuan Province since the trial of the reform.

Next, in order to promote the reform of the reform and let the system implement it, experts from the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment suggested that in -depth work in the following aspects:

The first is to implement local responsibility. Continue through the central ecological environmental protection inspector, conduct the supervision and assessment of the reform of the ecological environmental damage compensation system to conduct stress and conducting pressure, and promote relevant governments to attach importance to reform. To strengthen the effectiveness of the effectiveness of pollution prevention and control, the provincial and prefecture -level governments should also actively clearly clear the reform and advance results as a key assessment indicator in the performance assessment of the government at the same level. The second is to increase the screening of case clues. Unexpectedly urging local channels such as emergency environmental incidents, ecological damage major cases, listed supervision cases, environmental criminal cases, central ecological environmental protection inspectors to centrally report typical cases such as typical cases, increase the screening of case clues, improve case clue investigation and case transfer. Form the case account, sort out the case, and conduct investigation claims in a timely manner in accordance with laws and regulations.

The third is to do a good job of repairing supervision. Urges localities to organize and repairs and replace the repair and replace the restoration work to ensure that the repair effect meets the requirements of consultation and litigation. Strengthen the supervision of cases with major cases, long restoration cycles, and slow repair. Ensure that the damaged ecological environment is repaired, the repair effect meets the requirements, so that the people have a practical sense of improvement in the improvement of the ecological environment.

The fourth is to promote the improvement of technology. Further joint relevant departments, in order to establish a national key R & D plan and the construction of key laboratories, etc., strengthen the research and development of ecological environmental damage appraisal evaluation and evaluation technical foundation, focus on overcoming key technical difficulties such as baseline determination, cause and effect analysis, and quantification of damage; continuously enrich and improve the present presentation Some ecological environmental damage compensation and appraisal and evaluation basic data platforms, enhance the technical support capabilities of ecological environmental damage compensation. At the same time, encourage and assist all localities to carry out technical methods exploration and practice in targeted places, and enrich the technical standardization system.

On the occasion of the cover report of this issue, on May 16, 2022, the official website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released such a message: "Recently, the Central Committee of the Central Committee was reviewed and approved by the Central Committee. A total of 14 units including the Ministry of Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security issued a total of 14 relevant departments issued the "Regulations on the Management of Ecological Environment Damage Compensation".

Reform, there are new actions again!

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