Over the Next Five Years, Four Sub-Sectors of the Environmental Protection Industry Will Take the Lead in Development

[Introduction] The future prospects of the environmental protection industry are becoming increasingly clear. Under the new normal of the new era, the environmental protection industry, a new pillar of the national economy, is gradually moving from its initial vision into reality. Based on recent industry and market feedback, the high growth and explosive development of the environmental protection industry will continue steadily over the next five years. In terms of sub-sectors, four major sub-areas will become the biggest highlights.

From the 18th to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the construction of ecological civilization has continued to deepen. From the 12th Five-Year Plan to the 13th Five-Year Plan, the environmental protection industry has become a new economic growth point. In the next five years, the booming environmental protection industry is bound to increase, but which sub-sectors will stand out first, leading the industry to a broader, deeper, and brighter future?

In 2012, the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China devoted a chapter to ecological civilization for the first time, proposing for the first time "promoting green development, circular development, and low-carbon development" and "building a beautiful China." In 2015, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued and implemented the "Overall Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System," establishing the "four pillars and eight beams" of the ecological civilization system.

Building upon the foundation laid by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 19th National Congress put forward even higher requirements for ecological civilization construction, with "adhering to the harmonious coexistence of man and nature" becoming one of the fourteen strategies for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Whether it's "winning the battle for blue skies" or "focusing on mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasslands," both demonstrate my country's determination and confidence in winning the battle against pollution for a considerable period to come.

The future prospects of the environmental protection industry are already quite clear. Under the new normal of the new era, the environmental protection industry, a new pillar of the national economy, is gradually moving from its initial vision into reality. Based on recent industry and market feedback, the high growth and explosive development of the environmental protection industry will continue steadily over the next five years. In terms of sub-sectors, four major sub-areas will become the biggest highlights.

Industrial Environmental Protection

Industrial production has always been one of the main sources of pollution to the ecological environment. With the environmental protection campaign underway, the shift from environmental impact assessment to a pollutant discharge permit system, and the near saturation of the municipal environmental protection market, the industrial environmental protection market is showing signs of recovery. Zhao Lijun, president of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Environmental Chamber of Commerce, stated that based on the coal chemical and energy chemical water treatment markets, as well as industry cycle fluctuations and overlapping policies, a new round of development in the industrial environmental protection market is basically confirmed.

The industrial environmental protection market mainly encompasses industrial air pollution (desulfurization, denitrification, dust removal, VOCs), industrial water treatment, industrial solid waste (general industrial solid waste, hazardous waste, industrial sludge), industrial energy conservation and energy services, and industrial monitoring. Once these areas experience full-scale growth, the market size of industrial environmental protection will be no less than 1 trillion yuan. Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection's plan, the continued standardization and promotion of third-party governance and the advancement of green supply chain environmental management will provide a larger and more sustainable driving force for the explosive growth of industrial environmental protection.

Environmental Monitoring

With the industrial environmental protection market opening up, the market demand for environmental monitoring is increasingly strong, attracting social capital to the field, causing it to rapidly heat up.

During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the national environmental monitoring network system was basically completed. Entering the 13th Five-Year Plan period, policy support for environmental monitoring has only increased: the Environmental Protection Law, the Water Ten Measures, the ecological environment monitoring network, the continued implementation of the "Three Major Ten Measures," and strict crackdowns on falsified monitoring data. Beyond policy, there is also significant investment of special funds. This substantial investment has led to a continued increase in environmental monitoring stations and continuous upgrades in environmental monitoring technology, resulting in a remarkably high level of prosperity for the environmental monitoring industry.

According to the China Investment Consulting Industry Research Center, the market size of the environmental monitoring industry is expected to exceed 80 billion yuan in 2020, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of approximately 20%. The frequent implementation of PPP projects will further drive the environmental monitoring industry, promoting further expansion of the entire environmental monitoring market.

Soil Remediation

The industry's assessment of the potential boom in the soil remediation market is based on three recent positive developments. First, the State Council recently issued the "Notice on Carrying Out the Third National Land Survey," deciding to conduct the third national land survey starting in 2017. Second, the "Measures for the Management of Agricultural Land Soil Environment (Trial)" will also come into effect in November. Thirdly, on October 23, Li Ganjie, Secretary of the Party Group and Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, clearly stated that "the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law has undergone its first review by the National People's Congress, and related standards and systems are also being formulated and promulgated, some of which have already been released."

Data from the "China Soil Remediation Industry Market Outlook and Investment Strategy Planning Analysis Report" shows that the soil remediation market has a potential size of 4.6 trillion yuan, and its scale will further expand in the future, even reaching the 10 trillion yuan level.

Environmental Services Industry

Since the late 1990s, benefiting from the implementation of the Ninth Five-Year Plan for Environmental Protection, my country's environmental services industry has experienced a leap in growth. The expansion of industry scale and the optimization and adjustment of industrial structure have shown considerable future development potential in the environmental services sector. Especially in the later stages of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the rise of the environmental protection industry has driven the prosperity of the environmental services industry, making it a brand-new blue ocean.