Ecological Answer Sheet Written in Lucid Waters and Green Mountains: A Summary of the Achievements of Ecological Civilization System Reform since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Ecological Answer Sheet Written in the Green Waters and Green Mountains -- A Summary of the Achievements of the Ecological Civilization System Reform since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Xinhua News Agency reporters Gao Jing and Huang Taoming

In the face of the people's yearning for a better life, how to answer the inevitable question of ecological civilization construction?

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has vigorously promoted the theoretical innovation, practical innovation and institutional innovation of ecological civilization, put forward a series of new ideas, new ideas and new strategies, formed Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, and provided a fundamental basis for the construction of ecological civilization in the new era.

Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the reform of the ecological civilization system has been comprehensively deepened and promoted, the ecological environmental protection has been strengthened in all directions, regions and processes, the ecological civilization system has been more sound, and the green, circular and low-carbon development has taken solid steps. An ecological answer sheet with bluer sky, clearer water, and more beautiful mountains is spread out on the vast land of China.

Reform efforts to promote the continuous improvement of the quality of the ecological environment with tackling tough problems

Not long ago, an ultra-long-distance "group photo" of the Great Wall and "China Zun" swiped social networks. In the foreground, it is the Great Wall of Jiuyanlou located in Sihai Town, Yanqing District, Beijing; In the distance, one of Beijing's landmark buildings in Chaoyang District, "China Zun".

People will remember that 10 years ago, the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting was held in Beijing. During the conference, Beijing, which is often shrouded in smog in autumn and winter, ushered in clear and beautiful blue skies.

"The weather was fine in those days, and someone asked, is this 'APEC blue', can it last? I replied to them that it was not a short-lived blue sky, and in a few years it would be a permanent blue. During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping spoke in a firm tone when it came to this detail.

From "APEC Blue" to the long-term "Beijing Blue", it is a landmark achievement of the mainland's reform to promote pollution prevention and control since the new era.

The construction of ecological civilization is a fundamental plan related to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the prosperity of ecology leads to the prosperity of civilization, and the decline of ecology leads to the decline of civilization.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has taken the construction of ecological civilization as an important part of the overall layout of the "five-in-one" and the coordinated promotion of the "four comprehensive" strategic layout. The "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization" and the "Overall Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System" were promulgated, building the "four beams and eight pillars" of the reform of the ecological civilization system, and making comprehensive and systematic arrangements for the construction of ecological civilization. The CPC Central Committee has led hundreds of millions of people to declare war on pollution and continue to improve the quality of the ecological environment.

The Yangtze River is the mother river of the Chinese nation and an important support for the development of the Chinese nation.

In the face of the grim ecological and environmental situation of the Yangtze River, General Secretary Xi Jinping once sadly described the mother river as "sick, not lightly".

In January 2016, a symposium on promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was held in Chongqing, and the rule was clearly established: "jointly grasp the great protection, not the large-scale development".

In the past eight years, the general secretary has held four forums on the theme of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and his concern for the mother river has been consistent.

The chemical enterprises along the Yangtze River have been relocated and relocated, the construction of the sewage pipe network has been accelerated, the traceability and rectification of the sewage outlets into the river have been remediated, and the "ten-year fishing ban" has been solidly promoted...... A number of reform measures are prescribed to the right medicine and systematically treated.

Today, the mother river has "recovered from a serious illness" and its "green content" is getting higher and higher. The water quality of the main stream of the Yangtze River is stable at Class II, and it is gradually regaining its vitality.

It's not just the Yangtze River that has changed. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a series of focused, vigorous and effective environmental remediation actions have continued to exert force——

In June 2018, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Ecological and Environmental Protection and Resolutely Fighting the Battle of Pollution Prevention and Control"; In November 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Battle of Pollution Prevention and Control", from "resolute" to "in-depth", adhere to high standards to fight the battle of blue sky, clear water and pure land.

Since 2013, three "Ten Atmospheric Measures" documents have been promulgated one after another, playing a "combination punch" of rule of law, market, science and technology, and policy - giving full play to the role of fiscal and financial guidance, and the central government has issued a total of more than 200 billion yuan in air pollution prevention and control funds; With the implementation of the policies of desulfurization, denitrification, dust removal and ultra-low emission electricity prices, the mainland has become the world's largest clean coal-fired power generation base. Preferential tax policies strongly support enterprises to carry out ultra-low emission transformation.

In order to clear water for a long time, the river chief system and the lake chief system have been fully established, and many rivers and lakes have realized the transformation from "no one manages" to "someone manages", from "unmanageable" to "well managed", and a number of river and lake management and protection problems have been solved, and the situation of rivers and lakes has gradually improved.

In order to make the homeland more beautiful, all localities have vigorously promoted the classification of domestic waste, started the construction of "zero-waste cities", carried out the improvement of the rural living environment, and achieved the goal of "zero import" of solid waste in the mainland as scheduled.

A series of reform measures have gathered a strong synergy to continuously tackle tough problems and promote the continuous improvement of the quality of the ecological environment——

The sky is bluer, the number of heavily polluted days has dropped significantly, blue skies and white clouds have become the norm, and the mainland has become the country with the fastest improvement in air quality in the world.

The water is clearer, the appearance of rivers and lakes has been fundamentally improved, and the proportion of surface water with excellent water quality section has approached the level of developed countries.

The soil is cleaner, the soil environmental risk has been effectively controlled, and more and more green is dyeing the mountains and rivers of the motherland.

Nowadays, the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets has gradually become the consensus and action of the whole party and the whole society, the reform of the mainland's ecological civilization system has been accelerated, the ecological environmental protection has undergone historic, turning and overall changes, and the construction of a beautiful China has taken a major step.

Institutional escort, and strengthen the supervision of ecological protection and restoration in the way of symbiosis

Every year in May, the annual migration and calving season of the Tibetan antelope, the "plateau elf", begins. In the Hoh Xil area of Sanjiangyuan National Park, there is often such a harmonious and moving picture - passing vehicles are parked far away, and Tibetan antelopes passing by the Qinghai-Tibet Highway are voluntarily awaited.

At present, the population of Tibetan antelope here has recovered from less than 20,000 in the late 80s to more than 70,000.

During his recent inspection in Qinghai, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the need to strengthen the construction of a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body, and create a model of nature reserves with national representation and world influence.

Promoting the construction of a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body is an important deployment made by General Secretary Xi Jinping. From the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013 when the establishment of a national park system was first proposed, to the pilot of the national park system in 2015, and then to the official establishment of the first batch of five national parks in 2021, the mainland has now issued a spatial layout plan and is building the world's largest national park system.

The first batch of national parks has handed over a brilliant "report card": the Sanjiangyuan National Park has achieved the overall protection of the headwaters of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Lancang River; The Giant Panda National Park has opened up ecological corridors and protected more than 70% of the wild giant pandas; A number of new species such as the rain god horned toad have been newly discovered in Wuyi Mountain National Park......

Guarding lucid waters and lush mountains, reform insists on respecting nature, conforming to nature, protecting nature, and protecting nature and the ecological environment like protecting eyes.

At the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping creatively put forward the concept of "mountains, rivers, forests, fields and lakes are a community of life", and then included the important ecosystem of "grass".

During the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2021, when participating in the deliberations of the Inner Mongolia delegation, General Secretary Xi Jinping said: "To coordinate the management of the system of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sands, the word 'sand' should be added here. ”

"How to arrange mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, we must do a good job in top-level design and comprehensive management, which is a systematic project and needs to be worked on for a long time." General Secretary Xi Jinping said.

To protect the ecological environment, we must grasp the word "overall planning." "Overall planning" points out the overall idea and direction of the reform of the ecological civilization system. A series of reform measures to coordinate ecological protection and restoration are reshaping the boundary between man and nature.

The mainland has comprehensively demarcated the "three zones and three lines", gradually formed a "one map" for the development and protection of national land space, and accelerated the construction of a land space pattern with intensive and efficient production space, moderate livable living space, and beautiful ecological space.

The mainland has also creatively proposed an ecological protection redline system, which classifies areas with extremely important ecological functions, extremely fragile ecosystems, and potentially important ecological values into ecological protection redlines, so as to realize a redline to control important ecological spaces. Up to now, the area of terrestrial ecological protection redlines accounts for more than 30% of the land area.

Guarding the lucid waters and lush mountains, insisting on using the system to govern officials, protect the blue and increase the green, and make the system a rigid constraint and an untouchable high-voltage line.

Whether or not ecological environmental protection can be implemented lies in the leading cadres and the fundamental system guarantee.

In view of the problems of weak environmental awareness, inadequate performance of duties, and lack of strict implementation in some places, the Party Central Committee has promoted the establishment of a central ecological environmental protection supervision system, an evaluation and assessment system for ecological civilization construction goals, carried out the audit of natural resource assets of leading cadres leaving office, and implemented a lifelong accountability system for ecological and environmental damage, so that ecological environmental protection has gradually become a hard constraint.

The ecological destruction of the Qilian Mountains, the illegal construction of golf courses and villas in the Changbai Mountain International Resort, the illegal reclamation of some places in Hainan for development, and the excessive development of the Changyin Mountain in Dianchi Lake...... These typical problems of ecological and environmental damage have been solved one by one, relying on the "sharp sword" of the central ecological and environmental protection inspection system.

Adhere to the problem-oriented, expose typical cases, accurate and effective accountability, and form a closed-loop rectification ...... The Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspectorate dares to move seriously, is not afraid of offending people, and does not relax in biting the problem, which has become a hard move to promote the implementation of ecological environmental protection responsibilities.

In recent years, a series of institutional measures have been strongly escorted, and the mainland has made great efforts to improve the diversity, stability and sustainability of ecosystems, and the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sands have achieved remarkable results, leaving a beautiful ecological space for future generations.

Transformation and development, in a way to thicken the green background of high-quality development

In summer, the snow in the mountains and forests melts, and with the arrival of groups of tourists, the Daxinganling forest area of Inner Mongolia ushers in the most lively season of the year.

On the afternoon of March 5, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People to participate in the deliberations of the Inner Mongolia delegation. The deputies of the National People's Congress from the forest area reported to the general secretary on the transformation and development of the forest area, and the forestry workers changed from the previous "tree cutters" to "tree watchers", and the total value of forest and wetland ecosystem services in the forest area reached 615.974 billion yuan in 2018.

General Secretary Xi Jinping said: "The total ecological value you mentioned is the concept of green GDP, which shows that ecology itself is value. This not only has the value of the forest itself, but also the green lung effect, which can also bring tourism and understory economy. ”

Increasing greenery is to increase advantages, and forest protection is to protect wealth. Nowadays, under the premise of ensuring the ecological security of forests, forest areas vigorously promote ecological industrialization and industrial ecology. In addition to the development of tourism, the forest area also focuses on the development of black fungus planting, birch sap beverage processing and other understory industries, where lucid waters and lush mountains have truly become gold and silver mountains.

To protect the ecological environment is to protect the productive forces, and to improve the ecological environment is to develop the productive forces. In the view of General Secretary Xi Jinping, lucid waters and lush mountains are not only natural wealth, ecological wealth, but also social wealth and economic wealth.

With the power of reform, we will explore a new path to achieve synergy and symbiosis of development and protection, and open up the transformation channel from lucid waters and lush mountains to gold and silver mountains, so that good ecology and good landscapes will become "valuable treasures".

On June 1 this year, the "Regulations on Ecological Protection and Compensation" came into effect. At present, the mainland has built an ecological protection compensation mechanism with the world's widest coverage, the largest number of beneficiaries and the largest investment.

In recent years, various localities have improved the value realization mechanism of ecological products, explored the accounting of the gross value of the ecosystem, built an ecological economic system with industrial ecology and ecological industrialization as the main body, and promoted the trading of forestry carbon tickets and emission rights.

In Gansu, herders who once relied on the mountains for food are now rangers; In Hunan, fishermen who laid down their nets joined the fishing protection team; In Zhejiang, rural tourism and ecological tourism make people richer and more ecologically beautiful...... The mainland is taking a "win-win" path of ecological protection and economic development.

In the face of the severe challenge of global warming, China has solemnly promised the world that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

The mainland has incorporated carbon peaking and carbon neutrality into the overall layout of ecological civilization construction, successively issued the "1+N" policy under the "dual carbon" goal, accelerated the development of new energy sources such as wind power and photovoltaics, and strived to promote green and low-carbon production and lifestyle as the conscious pursuit of the whole society.

In July 2021, the national carbon emission trading market officially opened, becoming the world's largest carbon market covering greenhouse gas emissions. In January 2024, the National Greenhouse Gas Voluntary Emission Reduction Trading Market was launched to mobilize the whole society to participate in greenhouse gas emission reduction actions.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that ecological civilization is a cause for the people to participate in, build and enjoy together, and it is necessary to transform the construction of a beautiful China into the conscious action of all the people.

Nowadays, the concept and way of green and low-carbon life are being integrated into everyone's life.

In May this year, Chongqing Public Transport Group launched a new low-carbon Huimin initiative, citizens can directly scan the code or bind a bus card to take the bus through the "Carbon Huitong" applet, and the "Carbon Huitong" platform automatically quantifies its emission reduction effect and gives carbon credits, and then uses carbon credits to exchange for bus coupons in the platform points mall to guide citizens to practice a green and low-carbon lifestyle.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP have dropped by more than 35%, and the installed capacity of renewable energy has surpassed that of coal power.

Beautiful China is getting closer. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, China is writing a new chapter in the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, further deepening the reform of the ecological civilization system, promoting institutional integration and mechanism innovation in an integrated manner, and supporting high-quality development with a high-quality ecological environment. (ENDS)