Chinese modernization is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Without a sound ecological and environmental governance system, it is impossible to build a modern society in which man and nature coexist in harmony. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision") adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision") devotes a special chapter to "improving the ecological and environmental governance system". Therefore, it is necessary to understand why the emphasis is on improving the ecological environment governance system, what ecological environment governance system to improve, and how to improve the ecological environment governance system.
The importance of improving the ecological environment governance system
In social sciences such as political science and public administration, "governance" refers to an activity in which different subjects take the system as the core to achieve a common goal, such as national governance, social governance, etc. The "sound ecological and environmental governance system" mentioned in the "Decision" reflects the major transformation of the mainland's ecological and environmental protection from "management" to "governance". The change of the ecological environment from "governance" to "governance system" is a major progress, and the change of the ecological environment governance system from "initial construction" to "sound" is another major progress.
The first is the transformation from "rule by man" to "rule by law". The core of the ecological and environmental governance system is the system, especially the legal system. The ecological and environmental code will become the second code of the mainland, which will greatly promote the process of legalization, systematization and standardization of the mainland's ecological and environmental governance.
The second is the transformation from "passive" to "active". Ecological environment management is often the command-obey relationship between managers represented by the government and the managed represented by enterprises and residents, and between superiors and subordinates, while ecological environment governance reflects the relationship between equal subjects.
The third is the transformation from "going it alone" to "cooperating". Ecological environment management is often a "single center", which is the management and coercion of the "center" to the "periphery"; Ecological and environmental governance is "polycentric", emphasizing the equal relationship between different subjects, and is a multi-subject cooperation, coordination and checks and balances, where everyone is the master and everyone is the subject.
Fourth, the transformation from "short-term" to "long-term". Institutionalized, systematic, and collaborative institutional arrangements are often a long-term mechanism. Although this mechanism can also be continuously optimized, it does not require subversive changes, but can be automatically repaired, improved, and iteratively upgraded, so as to save the cost of system design.
The transformation of ecological environment management to ecological environment management is the trend of the times. Therefore, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the modernization of the ecological environment governance system and governance capacity has been emphasized, and it has become an important part of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.
Improve the main content of the ecological and environmental governance system
The first sentence of the "Decision" to elaborate on "improving the ecological environment governance system" points out: "Promote the construction of the ecological environment governance responsibility system, supervision system, market system, laws, regulations and policy system." According to this, the ecological environment governance system can be subdivided into six systems: responsibility system, supervision system, market system, legal system, planning system, and policy system. The ecological environmental responsibility system, the ecological environment market system, and the ecological environmental legal system have all been clearly stipulated in the past, and the "Decision" has not further emphasized or only emphasized a little bit of pen and ink; The "Decision" focuses on the ecological environment supervision system, ecological environment planning system, and ecological environment policy system.
The "Decision" does not repeat the three major systems: first, the ecological environment responsibility system. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that the national natural resource asset management system should be improved, and the responsibilities of the owners of all natural resource assets owned by the whole people should be exercised in a unified manner. Improve the supervision system for natural resources, and uniformly exercise the responsibility for the control of all land and space uses. Explore the compilation of natural resource balance sheets, and carry out audits of natural resource assets for leading cadres leaving office. Establish a lifelong accountability system for ecological and environmental damage.
The second is the ecological environment market system. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made it clear that the development of the environmental protection market, the implementation of energy saving, carbon emission rights, pollutant discharge rights, and water rights trading systems, the establishment of a market-oriented mechanism to attract social capital to invest in ecological environmental protection, and the implementation of third-party governance of environmental pollution. The 2023 National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection further emphasized that resource and environmental elements such as carbon emission rights, energy use rights, water rights, and pollutant discharge rights will be integrated into the overall plan of market-oriented allocation reform of factors, and market transactions such as transfers, transfers, mortgages, and shares will be supported, so as to standardize the environmental governance market and promote the healthy development of the environmental protection industry and environmental service industry.
The third is the legal system of ecological environment. At the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection held in 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "It is necessary to strengthen the protection of the rule of law, and coordinate and promote the formulation and revision of relevant laws in the fields of ecology and environment, resources and energy." The "Decision" clearly proposes to "compile the ecological and environmental code". Although the number of words is small, this statement carries a lot of weight.
The "Decision" focuses on three major systems: First, the ecological environment supervision system. That is, to implement the fixed pollution source supervision system with the pollutant discharge permit system as the core, establish a coordinated management of new pollutants and environmental risk management and control system, and promote the coordinated emission reduction of multiple pollutants. Deepen the reform of the system for disclosing environmental information in accordance with the law, and build an environmental credit supervision system.
The second is the ecological environment planning system. It includes improving the system and mechanism of precise pollution control, scientific pollution control, and pollution control in accordance with the law; Promote the construction of an ecological and environmental governance system that integrates upstream and downstream in important river basins; comprehensively promote the construction of a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body; Implement the ecological protection redline management system, and improve the integrated protection and systematic governance mechanism of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sands; Implement a rigid constraint system for water resources.
The third is the ecological and environmental policy system. That is, the full implementation of the water resource fee to tax. Improve the system for the development and protection of marine resources. Improve the value realization mechanism of ecological products. Deepen the reform of the system of paid use of natural resources. Establish a diversified investment mechanism for ecological protection and restoration. Promote comprehensive ecological compensation, improve the horizontal ecological protection compensation mechanism, and coordinate the promotion of compensation for ecological and environmental damage. Strengthen the coordination mechanism for biodiversity conservation.
Among the above six systems, the ecological environment legal system and planning system are mandatory systems, including intra-party regulations, national laws, administrative regulations, local regulations, national and local planning, etc.; The eco-environmental market system and policy system are incentive systems, including green finance system, ecological property rights system, green finance system, environmental price system, etc.; The ecological environmental responsibility system and supervision system are implementation systems, also known as implementation mechanisms, which are mainly used to ensure the implementation of a series of ecological civilization systems and clarify the relevant responsibilities.
Improve the main incentives of the ecological and environmental governance system
China's ecological civilization construction has shifted from the era of "management" to the era of "governance". The key to improving the ecological environment governance system is to play a role through the "human" factor. The key issues that need to be solved are multi-subject participation, multi-subject coordination, multi-subject checks and balances, and multi-subject coordination.
The first is to solve the problem of multi-agent participation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Everyone is a protector, builder and beneficiary of the ecological environment, and no one is a bystander, outsider or critic. "Only when everyone protects, everyone saves, and everyone participates can we form a majestic force for ecological and environmental protection.
The second is to solve the problem of multi-agent coordination. Among the ecological and environmental products, some belong to public goods and need to be borne by the government; Some belong to private items and require micro subjects to take responsibility; Some are mixed items that require a hybrid mechanism to share responsibility. For those with clear responsibilities, they can be implemented in accordance with the principle of division of labor and responsibility, and those with less clear responsibilities should be resolved through the environmental consultation mechanism. Environmental consultation is an important component of whole-process democracy, and it is also a distinctive feature of the "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era. It is necessary to use and improve this mechanism well.
The third is to solve the problem of multi-subject checks and balances. Ecological environmental protection requires not only the self-discipline consciousness of each subject, but also the external constraints for each subject. To this end, it is necessary to build a government mechanism with the government as the main body, a market mechanism with enterprises as the main body, and a social mechanism with the public and ecological environmental associations as the main body. At the same time, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between "athletes" and "referees" in ecological and environmental governance, and the two should not be integrated, but separated from each other to form a relationship of mutual constraints. Everyone is a participant in ecological environmental protection and a supervisor of ecological environmental protection. With a complete set of supervision systems, such as self-supervision, social supervision, and organizational supervision, we can make the ecological environment governance system increasingly onto a healthy track.
Fourth, solve the problem of multi-subject coordination. The soul of the ecological environment governance system is the system. The system of ecological civilization is aimed at different types of subjects. Therefore, the functional division of each subject and the functional zoning of each region are effective means to improve the performance of ecological and environmental governance. However, this will also lead to problems such as "functional conflict", "functional conflict", and "functional blankness". Therefore, the coordination mechanism is very important. The success of the "river chief system", "lake chief system", "bay chief system" and "forest chief system" lies mainly in coordination. The Decision also attaches special importance to improving the coordination mechanism for national ecological security and biodiversity conservation.
The author is a special expert of Zhejiang Province and the dean of the Institute of Ecological Civilization of Zhejiang A&F University
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