What is planning EIA?

Planning EIA refers to the environmental impact assessment of the planning of a certain region or an industry, analyzing the environmental capacity of the whole region and industry, and analyzing the impact on the environment. Its scientific nature lies in demonstrating and analyzing the scientific nature of the project and the rationality of the layout from the planning link.

At present, the "EIA" familiar to the public is the EIA for a single project. Because the construction project is at the end of the decision-making chain (planning-planning-project), the project EIA can only make remedial efforts; The approval or rejection of a single project cannot affect the initial decision-making and layout. When people set out to formulate policies, plans and programs, environmental problems have already emerged potentially. From the actual situation of environmental impact assessment in China for more than 20 years, it is often not the projects developed in one or some areas that have a significant or even overall impact on the environment, but the policies, plans and plans formulated by the government on economic development, regional development planning and resource utilization.

At present, there are still many hidden dangers in China's steel, river basin development, town planning and other industries. The situation of blind launching and disorderly competition of industries with high energy consumption and high pollution is becoming more and more serious, and the contradiction of overlapping layout and positioning conflict between urban construction and industrial development is becoming increasingly acute. The problems of unfair environment and transfer of polluting industries in the central and western regions are still outstanding, and the pattern of administrative division and fragmented development of river basins and regions is becoming more and more solid. These phenomena run counter to the goal of building an ecological civilization. Facing the enormous pressure of energy saving and emission reduction and a series of environmental problems such as the outbreak of cyanobacteria in Taihu Lake, we have to re-examine the scientificity and rationality of the original plan. It is obviously unable to meet the inherent requirements of sustainable development and comprehensive decision-making by continuing the previous development model and continuing to adopt the remedial method of "covering the soil with water". The purpose of planning EIA is to prevent environmental problems closer to the source and optimize and adjust the development layout, structure and scale from the decision-making source. Its absence will not fundamentally solve the problem that "economic growth pays too much for resources and environment" put forward in the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the concept of ecological civilization will not be firmly established, and the real implementation of the sustainable development strategy will be challenged.