Construction of ecological civilization - accelerate the promotion of comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development

Author: Gao Shikai (Director, Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy, Development Research Center of the State Council)

Li Weiming (Director, Resource Policy Research Office, Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy, Development Research Center of the State Council)

In 2021, the construction of ecological civilization on the mainland has opened a new stage of focusing on carbon reduction as the key strategic direction, promoting pollution reduction and carbon reduction synergy, promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and realizing the improvement of ecological environment quality from quantitative to qualitative change. Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, all regions and departments have deeply studied and implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, maintained the strategic determination of ecological civilization construction, and coordinated resource conservation, pollution control, ecological protection, and climate change response, achieving a good start in the "14th Five-Year Plan".

The first is to strengthen the strategic planning and deployment of carbon peak carbon neutrality. The Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality Work Leading Group was established, the "1 + N" policy system was successively released, and the deployment and implementation of various tasks were accelerated. The second is to accelerate the establishment and improvement of a green and low-carbon circular development economic system. The industrial structure, energy structure, and transportation structure continue to be adjusted and optimized, the transformation and upgrading of key industries such as petrochemicals and steel has accelerated, the installed capacity and power generation of photovoltaic and wind energy have remained the first in the world, and the production and sales scale of new energy vehicles continue to rank first in the world. The third is to continue to strengthen the coordinated governance of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Green mountains and green water, blue sky and white clouds continue to increase, and the sense of ecological environment acquisition, happiness and security continues to increase. The fourth is to continuously improve the system of ecological civilization. Promulgated the Opinions on Establishing and Improving the Mechanism for Realizing the Value of Ecological Products, actively built an institutional framework for the realization of the value of ecological products, formally implemented the Yangtze River Protection Law and the Outline of the Yellow River Basin Ecological Protection and High-quality Development Plan, and officially launched online trading in the mainland of the world's largest carbon market covering emissions. The fifth is to continue to promote the construction of global ecological civilization and participate in the construction of a more reasonable global ecological civilization governance system. Successfully held the first phase of the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, formally adopted the "Kunming Declaration", calling on all parties to jointly build a community of life on earth, formally submitted the "New Measures for China's Implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions and New Targets" and "China's Long-term Greenhouse Gas Low Emission Development Strategy for the Middle of this Century", promoted the positive results of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and continued to promote the construction of the green "Belt and Road".

At the same time, the current construction of ecological civilization in the mainland is still facing many challenges: the long-term mechanism for coordinating economic development and total energy control, economic transformation and energy security needs to be built urgently; the reform of the energy system and mechanism needs to be deepened, the modern energy governance system and the new power system with new energy as the main body need to be established; the efficiency of ecological environment supervision needs to be further enhanced, and the synergistic mechanism for pollution reduction and carbon reduction needs to be established and improved; the system and mechanism for green science and technology innovation have not yet been straightened out, and the green industry support system and the value realization mechanism for ecological products are not yet perfect The ability and level of deep participation in and leadership of global climate governance need to be improved, and the construction of the green "Belt and Road" needs to be accelerated.

In 2022, we must face up to difficulties, strengthen confidence, correctly understand and grasp the new situation and new tasks of the current construction of ecological civilization, effectively strengthen the overall coordination in the field of ecological civilization, and accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. Specifically: First, we must deeply study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, so as to guide policy formulation, specific implementation and research in the field of ecological civilization construction. Second, it is necessary to establish and improve the "1 + N" policy system and its implementation mechanism, comprehensively and orderly promote the work of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality; strive to achieve the transformation from dual control of energy consumption to dual control of total carbon emissions and intensity as soon as possible; accelerate the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system and a new power system with new energy as the main body; improve the supporting system system for the carbon market and the voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading mechanism, and establish a long-term mechanism for statistical accounting, data management and performance of greenhouse gas data. Third, we must innovate the green technology system and mechanism, increase policy support, accelerate the research and development, promotion and application of cutting-edge key technologies in key areas; study and improve the guarantee mechanism for comprehensive conservation, intensification and recycling of resources, and promote the revision of special legislation such as comprehensive utilization of resources and carbon neutrality, as well as the revision of the Energy Conservation Law and the Circular Economy Promotion Law. Fourth, we must accelerate the construction of top-level design and policy measures for pollution reduction and carbon reduction synergy, strengthen the comprehensive experimental role of the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone, establish and improve the value realization mechanism and ecological protection compensation mechanism for ecological products, as well as the effective operation and risk management mechanism of market-based trading of pollutant discharge rights, energy use rights, water rights and carbon emission rights. Fifth, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of ecological environment supervision, and continue to improve the supervision system of natural protected areas and ecological protection redlines. Sixth, we should study and deeply participate in global climate governance mechanisms, enhance the ability and effectiveness of implementing international conventions, accelerate the construction of the green "Belt and Road", strengthen international cooperation in the fields of climate change and biodiversity conservation, coordinate to promote biodiversity conservation and response to climate change, and promote the joint construction of a fair, reasonable, and win-win global climate governance system.

Guangming Daily ( 2022-01-20 07 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily