Today (March 8), the second "Minister Channel" of the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress was held in the Great Hall of the People. Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu, Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying, and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Jun accepted interviews with reporters. How to achieve the goal of 1.4 trillion jin of grain output? What are the new progress in the construction of the national water network? To promote the construction of a beautiful China pilot zone, which places will be shortlisted? Ministers faced the hot topics and responded to social concerns.

Gray black→Gray white The Minister of Ecology and Environment took out the filter membrane to show the improvement of the atmosphere

How was the environmental protection report card last year, and how do you view these achievements? Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, displayed two air filter membranes on the spot.

Huang Runqiu: I brought two filter membranes taken from the Beijing Atmospheric Environment Monitor, which is the same as the filter element on the air purifier at home. The left part is from 2015, which absorbed too much PM2.5, so it is gray-black; the right part is from last year, gray-white. In the past ten years, the PM2.5 concentration in Beijing dropped from 80.6 micrograms per cubic meter to 30.5 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 62%, and the filter membrane also changed from black to white.

In the past decade, the national ecological environment has undergone fundamental and turning points. In 2024, the ecological environment quality has been improved, and the proportion of excellent surface water quality sections across the country has crossed the threshold of 90% to reach 90.4%.

"Cultivate and develop green productivity, a package of policy measures has been launched"

Huang Runqiu said that high-quality development is the hard truth for our development in the new era. Without green and low carbon, there is no high quality of development. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has mainly done four aspects of work.

First, continue to promote ecological environment zoning control. So far, more than 44,000 environmental control units have been designated nationwide, realizing the "one unit, one list".

The second is to actively cultivate and develop green productivity. Since last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has successively launched a package of policy measures to support the development of new quality productivity by the ecological environment, and introduced 22 measures to support private enterprises.

The third is to use market mechanisms to promote pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Promoting the construction of the carbon market has prompted our country's carbon emission intensity in the field of coal-fired power generation to drop by 8.78 percentage points, saving 35 billion yuan in carbon reduction costs for enterprises.

Fourth, keep the bottom line of high-quality development. Last year, the regulations on pollution discharge permit management were issued. We distinguished different situations and carried out supervision and assistance to enterprises, sent policies, technologies, and plans to enterprises, and entered the workshop to encourage enterprises to adhere to the bottom line of emissions that meet standards.

Respond to extreme rainstorms and floods, the Ministry of Water Resources promotes the construction of three systems

Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, Li Guoying, said that in recent years, with the intensification of the impact of global climate change, extreme rainstorms and floods in my country have occurred frequently. The Ministry of Water Resources has anchored the goal of promoting the flood control safety system and capacity building, and actively promoted the construction of three systems: the basin flood control engineering system, the rainwater situation monitoring and forecasting system and the defense work system.

Li Guoying said that my country's flood control safety system and capabilities are gradually improving, but the situation of extreme heavy rainstorms and flood disasters has not changed. During the 2024 flood season, 1,321 rivers across the country suffered floods. The water conservancy department issued 4,303 flood warnings in advance, issued 30,100 dispatching instructions of various types, and 6,929 large and medium-sized reservoirs across the country were invested in flood control and dispatching, intercepting and storing 147.1 billion cubic meters of flood water, reducing 2,330 cities and towns, reducing 16.87 million mu of arable land, avoiding 11.15 million people from evacuating people, ensuring the safety of lives and property of the people to the greatest extent, and minimizing the losses of flood disasters.

Make more and more rivers and lakes a happy river and lake that benefit the people

Li Guoying said that to strive to maintain the healthy life of rivers and lakes and make them a happy river and lake that benefit the people, the Ministry of Water Resources mainly focuses on three things: first, focus on water conservation; second, focus on allocation; third, focus on restoration. Maintaining the health of rivers and lakes only in progress and not in completion. The Ministry of Water Resources will persist in doing a good job in ecological protection and management of rivers and lakes, so that more and more rivers and lakes will become happy rivers and lakes that benefit the people.

my country's grain output per capita is 500 kg, exceeding the world average

The government work report includes grain output of about 1.4 trillion jin into the main expected target. How to achieve this goal? How to continuously enhance the ability to stabilize production and supply of important agricultural products such as grain? Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Jun said that as a big country with a population of 1.4 billion, we must rely on ourselves to support ourselves, and the string of food security must always be tense.

Han Jun said that last year, grain production reached a new level of 1.4 trillion jin, which was supported by technical support, investment support and policy support. The government work report included grain output of about 1.4 trillion jin into the main expected goals, which can be achieved through strict scientific demonstration and efforts.

Han Jun introduced that the achievement of 1.4 trillion jin of grain production last year was hard-won. 1.4 trillion jin was spread over 1.4 billion people across the country, with an average of 500 kilograms per capita, exceeding the world average.

Three aspects are reflected! The results of poverty alleviation have been effectively consolidated and expanded

Han Jun said that this year is the last year for the five-year transition period for consolidating and expanding the results of poverty alleviation and effectively connecting with rural revitalization. Since the transition period, the results of poverty alleviation have been effectively consolidated and expanded, which are reflected in three aspects: First, the risk of falling back into poverty has been significantly reduced; Second, the per capita disposable income of farmers in poverty-stricken areas has been higher than the average growth rate of farmers' income in the country in the past four years; Third, the achievements in compulsory education, basic medical care, housing safety and drinking water safety have been effectively consolidated.

In short, we must implement precise strategies, focus on every person who is at risk of falling back into poverty, discover one, help one, resolve one, and ensure that large-scale relapse into poverty does not occur.