A shot in the arm for Yangtze River Delta

The Yangtze River Delta region got a shot in the arm for its green development as a high-level organization announced an action plan to gradually standardize ecological management across different areas in a pilot zone. 

At a press conference on Wednesday, the executive committee of the Demonstration Zone of Green and Integrated Ecological Development of the Yangtze River Delta released the action plan that promises to set up a uniform system of ecological management by 2022.

The demonstration zone, which encompasses parts of Shanghai, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, will work to unify their ecological standards as well as monitoring and law enforcement mechanism. 

"We must give priority to strict ecological protection," said Zhang Zhongwei, a senior official with the committee. "With strict standards, we will better guide our future development." 

At present, standards of ecological management vary in different administrative regions within the demonstration zone. All sides will make efforts to apply the most strict standards, said Bai Guoqiang, chief engineer with Shanghai's Bureau of Ecological and Environmental Protection. 

Under the action plan, new industrial projects in the core area of the demonstration zone have already been subject to the most strict national and regional emission standards. 

Moreover, a uniform monitoring and law enforcement mechanism is being explored and improved. Han Zhifu, an inspector from Zhejiang Province, told reporters that big data has been used to help law enforcement in different regions to coordinate and discover and solve problems more efficiently. 

There is no precedent yet in setting up a uniform cross-region standard of ecological management, said Bai Guoqiang, who acknowledged different development goals in different regions. 

Eventually, said Zhang, the demonstration zone's experience in creating a uniform ecological standard could be of reference value to other cross-region cooperation cases.