On January 17, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) held its January regular press conference. At the press conference, a journalist from the Cover News asked, “We have noted that MEE has carried out a special ODS law enforcement inspection nationwide. How is the progress?”

Mr. Liu Youbin, the spokesman of MEE, said in response as following. China has been earnestly implementing the requirements of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 2019, remaining committed to protecting the ozone layer and eliminating ozone depleting substances (ODS), with positive results being achieved.

Firstly, strictly implementing law enforcement and intensifying crack-down on illegal behaviors. In 2018 and 2019, MEE continuously carried out special ODS law enforcement inspections nationwide. From June to August 2019, MEE conducted special inspections in 11 key provinces/municipalities, including Shandong, Hebei and Henan. As the result of this action, 656 related enterprises were inspected, an illegal CFC-11 production site was demolished, and 16 enterprises were found to use CFC-11 illegally. These cases are under investigation by Local ecological and environmental bureaus (EEBs) in accordance with law. At the same time, in order to intensify source control of main raw materials of CFC-11, MEE has dispatched supervisory working groups to all 16 by-production carbon tetrachloride (CTC) enterprises to carry out on-site inspection, and installed CTC online production monitoring system to achieve holistic supervision on production process and product flow.

Secondly, strengthening management and improving monitoring capability. MEE has verified and issued the annual ODS production and consumption quota of the enterprise strictly, intensified control on ODS import/export review and approval procedure, and launched the construction of the information management system involving all categories of ODS. According to the practical situation of law enforcement, MEE issued the law enforcement interpretation of some provisions of the Regulation on the Administration of Ozone Depleting Substances (hereinafter referred to as the Regulation), formulated and issued Guidelines on ODS Supervision and Management, and launched the revision of the Regulation. 8 regional ODS product testing laboratories have been established in Beijing, Hebei, Shandong and other regions. These laboratories have been certificated by China Inspection Body and Laboratory Mandatory Approval (CMA), which can provide testing data with legal effect.

Thirdly, planning systematically and laying a solid foundation for implementation. By the end of 2020, an ODS information management system will be established to enable enterprises to report data online. Local EEBs can query data of ODS enterprises through the system and ODS related enterprises nationwide will be connected into a network, so as to verify enterprise data and enable tracking sources in the supply chain. The planning and construction of ODS atmospheric monitoring network is being promoted step by step to strengthen the capability of implementation monitoring early warning and effectiveness evaluation.

In the next step, MEE will further improve the implementation cooperation mechanism and law and regulation system, continuously promote ODS elimination and achieve the implementation goal. Also, MEE will continue to strengthen supervision and law enforcement, improve scientific and technical support and capacity building, deepen international cooperation and exchanges and further strengthen the construction of sustainable implementation institution and mechanism, and make China's contribution to the construction of global environmental governance system.