Ministry of Ecology and Environment: "zero tolerance" for falsification of carbon emission data

On March 30, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment held a regular press conference for March. Liu Youbin, spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and director of the Department of Publicity and Education, said that the quality of environmental data is the "lifeline" of environmental management, which is related to scientific decision-making, market fairness and government credibility. The falsification of environmental data maintains a high-pressure situation, and there is "zero tolerance" for falsification of carbon emission data.
It is understood that from October to December 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will go to 47 cities in 22 provinces to organize and carry out special supervision and assistance for the quality of carbon emission reports, and initially verify a number of typical and prominent problems.
Liu Youbin said that from the public exposure of typical problem cases, it reflects that some carbon market technical service agencies have weak awareness of laws and regulations, and some consulting and testing agencies are driven by interests to take risks and use fraudulent means to help companies tamper with carbon emissions data, which seriously interferes with the carbon market. normal order. The management system is not perfect, the quality control system of some technical service agencies is lacking, the project management is chaotic, and the work compliance and data authenticity are difficult to guarantee. The work responsibilities are not implemented, and some verification agencies subcontract the verification business layer by layer in order to reduce costs, and there are phenomena of "signing on behalf of" and "registered name". Some verification agencies only consult the ready-made data and information provided by the enterprise, but do not verify the authenticity, completeness and accuracy of the data files.
"Environmental data quality is the 'lifeline' of environmental management, and it is related to scientific decision-making, market fairness and government credibility. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to maintain a high-pressure situation against fraudulent environmental data, including carbon emissions data, and resolutely make assumptions about environmental data. No." Liu Youbin said that in the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will cooperate with the Ministry of Justice to actively promote the issuance of the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Carbon Emissions Trading" to further clarify the responsibilities and supervision and management requirements of technical service agencies. Severely crack down on fraud and other illegal activities. Take multiple measures to strengthen supervision, establish and improve mechanisms for information sharing, joint investigation, case transfer, etc., cooperate with relevant departments to strengthen the daily supervision of technical service institutions, and increase information disclosure and credit supervision.
At present, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has handed over the problems found in the special supervision and assistance of carbon emission reporting quality and related case files to the provincial ecological and environmental departments, instructing all localities to handle and punish according to laws and regulations, and those suspected of crimes will be transferred to the public security organs in a timely manner.
It is understood that in 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security will continue to carry out special campaigns against environmental crimes through falsification of automatic monitoring data, focusing on investigating and punishing abnormal operation of automatic monitoring equipment, tampering with automatic monitoring data, or interference with automatic monitoring facilities. , and third-party monitoring units provide false certification documents and other environmental violations and crimes.