The reporters learned that according to the "Provisional Measures for Rewards and Punishments of Environmental Air Quality in Hunan Province" (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisional Measures") issued by Provincial Finance Department and the Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, the municipalities and states that have reached the second-level air quality standards for the first time in the year will be given a circular recognition and award of not less than 10 million yuan. It was understood that in 2018, Zhangjiajie City, Chenzhou City, Yiyang City, Jishou City and Loudi City reached the second-level national air quality for the first time.

The Provisional Measures clarify that the governments of cities and states are responsible for the urban environmental air quality in their jurisdictions. The provincial level adopts the principle of "assessing according to facts, rewarding the good and punishing the bad", and assesses the urban environmental air quality in 14 cities and states by year. Municipalities and states that improve and meet the environmental air quality standards shall be rewarded, and those that deteriorate the environmental air quality shall be punished.

One is to implement the reward of reaching the standard. Municipalities and states that have reached the second-level air quality standards in the year shall be awarded not less than 5 million yuan, among which municipalities and states that have reached the second-level air quality for the first time shall be notified and awarded not less than 10 million yuan. In addition, municipalities and states with zero days of heavy pollution will be awarded 2 million yuan. The above two awards are not repeated.

The second is to implement improvement incentives. According to the annual changes of the main pollutant indexes (fine particulate PM2.5, ozone O?, inhalable particulate PM10), days of heavy pollution and days of good air quality in our province, the air environmental quality is improved compared with that in the previous year, rewards shall be given according to the extent of improvement.

The third is to implement rewards for good and punishments for bad. For cities and states with deteriorating air quality, the provincial finance will deduct the corresponding funds from the municipalities and states by means of financial system settlement at the beginning of the next year to co-ordinate the rewards and punishments for environmental air quality in the province.