The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made major arrangements for deepening the reform of the ecological civilization system in the new era and new journey. Facing the future, what new opportunities and new spaces will continue to promote the construction of ecological civilization and promote comprehensive green transformation? Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, how can all localities respond to the challenges of comprehensive green transformation and seize new opportunities for high-quality development?
Xinhua News Agency launched the "China Economic Roundtable" large-scale all-media interview program on September 27, inviting Li Qun, deputy director of the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources, Pan Huimin, deputy director of the New and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, and Tian Chunxiu, deputy director of the Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, to talk on the same stage.
This is the recording site of the large-scale all-media interview program of the "China Economic Roundtable". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li He
New achievements have been made, and the construction of ecological civilization on the mainland has made new contributions to the world
In the golden autumn season, the south of the clouds. The Caohai Lakeside Ecological Wetland in Kunming Dianchi National Tourism Resort has clear water, swaying reeds, and fish swimming, and many tourists take a leisurely walk on the trail.
"It's changed so much here!" Li Yunli, the leader of the Dianchi "women's salvage team" who is salvaging weeds, said that more than 10 years ago, the lake was once seriously polluted: "The water is green, like covered with a layer of paint, and some areas still smell." ”
In recent years, Kunming has taken measures such as source control and pollution interception, scientific water replenishment, etc., to continue to restore the lakeside ecology, and the "Pearl of the Plateau" has regained its glory.
Recently, the reporter felt that many stories like Dianchi Lake are happening in the north and south of the river, and the picturesque ecological beauty is spreading on the land of the motherland.
This is a view of the Caohai section of the Dianchi Greenway in Kunming, Yunnan Province, taken on April 12, 2022 (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Xinbo
The proportion of surface water quality is 89.4%, and the water quality of the main stream of the Yangtze River and the main stream of the Yellow River has been maintained in Class II for four consecutive years. The area of terrestrial ecological protection redline accounts for more than 30% of the land area, and the forest coverage rate reaches 24.02%, making it the country with the largest and fastest growth of forest resources and the largest area of artificial afforestation in the world......
When Tian Chunxiu participated in the interview of the "China Economic Roundtable", he quoted a group of data and said that since the new era, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, the mainland has unswervingly followed the path of ecological priority and green development, created an ecological miracle and a green development miracle that has attracted worldwide attention, and made a major step forward in the construction of a beautiful China.
Li Yunli, captain of the Dianchi "Women's Salvage Team", salvaged dead branches in the Caohai Sea of Dianchi Lake in Kunming, Yunnan Province (photo taken on March 20, 2023). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Xinbo
Water is the foundation of survival, the key to production, and the foundation of ecology. In Fuping, Shaanxi Province, the Shichuan River once became a barren ditch beach where "you can only see the rocks, but you can't see the river", and the local water control and systematic management have made the Shichuan River an ecological blessed land that benefits more than 200,000 people along the river.
"The most fundamental reason for the historic changes and overall results achieved by Fuping is the scientific guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's water control idea of 'water conservation priority, spatial balance, systematic governance, and two-handed efforts'." Li Qun introduced that since the comprehensive establishment of the long-term system of rivers and lakes, the country has cleaned up and rectified more than 240,000 outstanding problems in the management and protection of rivers and lakes such as "indiscriminate occupation, indiscriminate mining, indiscriminate piling, and indiscriminate construction", and created more than 3,000 happy rivers and lakes.
View of Hot Spring River Wetland Park in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province (taken on June 21, 2024, drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zou Jingyi
"At present, the seven major river basins of the mainland have established a joint meeting mechanism of provincial-level river and lake chiefs, with the main responsible comrades of the party and government of 31 provinces serving as the chief river chiefs, coordinating the resources of all parties, focusing on the governance of the river and lake system, the improvement of management and protection capabilities, and the regional development of the river basin, so as to promote the construction of happy rivers and lakes and achieve remarkable results." Li Qun said.
Pan Huimin said in the interview that as a developing country with a huge population, the mainland has accelerated the green transformation of the economy and society to achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and the new energy industry has achieved leapfrog development, making great contributions to the global response to climate change and green transformation.
As the world's largest clean energy market and equipment manufacturing country, the mainland is actively integrating into the global clean energy industry chain. According to estimates, in 2023, the mainland's renewable energy power generation is equivalent to a direct reduction of about 2.45 billion tons of carbon emissions, and the exported wind power and photovoltaic products will reduce carbon emissions for other countries by about 800 million tons, with a total reduction of 3.25 billion tons, playing a positive role in the global response to climate change.
Seize new opportunities and open up new space for high-quality development through green transformation
It is like a pharmaceutical base like a "natural oxygen bar", a comprehensive bonded zone that balances carbon emissions and carbon absorption, and an understory economy that makes barren mountains green...... During the investigation, the reporter felt that all localities are making efforts to explore the road of green and low-carbon transformation and polish the background color of high-quality development.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that green development is the background color of high-quality development, and new quality productivity itself is green productivity.
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) clearly called for "focusing on building a beautiful China and accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development", and made arrangements for improving the green and low-carbon development mechanism. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development", which is the first systematic deployment at the central level to accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.
"The plenum proposed to improve the green and low-carbon development mechanism, which is a major deployment based on accelerating the green transformation of the development mode and building a Chinese-style modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and is also a strategic path and important task to promote the realization of the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality." Tian Chunxiu said that accelerating green and low-carbon development and promoting development in the process of green transformation to achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth will bring huge new opportunities and new space for local development and enterprises.
On June 6, 2024, visitors visited the 2024 Shanghai International Carbon Neutral Technology, Products and Achievements Expo. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe
To promote green and low-carbon transformation, we will "inject new momentum for development", "drive new investment supply" and "form international competitiveness...... Tian Chunxiu said that the mainland's huge demand for green upgrading and transformation of traditional industries and green consumption demand are giving birth to the world's largest green market.
She said that a number of studies believe that the scale of investment required by the mainland to achieve the "dual carbon" goal is more than 100 trillion yuan. In the future, the cultivation of green productivity will inevitably drive new demand for green and low-carbon investment, and through innovative green investment and financing methods, all localities can not only meet the market's demand for green investment and financing, increase the supply of green financial markets, and promote the green development of industries, but also help enterprises effectively reduce financing costs and increase the attractiveness of green and low-carbon projects, thereby driving more investment supply.
One kilowatt-hour of electricity contains a large space for green transformation.
The reporter learned about the green practice of a pharmaceutical company in Jiangxi: in 2023, the comprehensive energy consumption and carbon emission intensity of the output value of China Resources Jiangzhong will decrease by 31% and 49% respectively compared with 2020, and the proportion of clean energy electricity use will be 7.9%, an increase of 108% compared with 2020.
Photographed in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province on June 28, 2024, the "Jiang Chinese Medicine Valley" liquid preparation workshop plant with photovoltaic panels installed on the roof. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Du Xiaoyi
Pan Huimin believes that wind power and photovoltaic power has become the main body of new power installations and an important force in ensuring energy supply in the mainland, helping the mainland to become the backbone of the global energy transition and helping enterprises achieve green and low-carbon development.
"Affected by the relevant requirements of product exports or green industrial chain and supply chain, the demand for green and low-carbon consumption, especially green power consumption, has ushered in explosive growth, and more and more enterprises across the country are actively publishing sustainable development reports or ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) reports to accelerate the promotion of the whole industry chain to reduce carbon emissions through the use of clean energy." Pan Huimin said that at present, the mainland has achieved full coverage of the issuance of green certificates, sufficient supply of green certificates and green electricity, and continuous improvement of system design, which strongly support enterprises to build a green industrial chain.
A drop of water integrates a large market for water-saving industries.
In July this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Water Resources and other departments issued guidance on accelerating the development of water-saving industries, proposing that the scale of water-saving industries will reach one trillion yuan by 2027.
"The state further deepens the construction of a water-saving society, increases investment in infrastructure construction in the fields of agricultural water-saving and efficiency, industrial water-saving and emission reduction, urban water-saving and loss reduction, improves the water intake monitoring and metering system, strengthens the construction of reclaimed water utilization facilities, and promotes mature and applicable water-saving technologies, which will effectively expand the space and scale of the water-saving market and bring more market opportunities to the industry and enterprises." Li Qun said.
Draw a new blueprint to enhance the "gold content" of development with the "green content" of the industry
Walking in the Purple Mountain Gold and Copper Mining Area, located in the Longyan Global Geopark in Fujian Province, is like walking into a forest park. The bottom of the pit is still producing hundreds of meters deep, and there is no sign of "dirty mess" in the mining area, and the slope near the pit mouth is already grassy. In the mining area, the tourist line composed of the geology and mineral museum, the open-pit mining industrial park, the botanical garden, etc., has become a popular research and tourism spot in the mining park.
The change of a mine is also a microcosm of the exploration of green development in various places.
How to seize the opportunity in the green transition? In the investigation, the reporter found that some places and enterprises are also facing problems and confusion in the transformation.
"It is necessary to seize the opportunity of new energy development", "develop green and low-carbon industries" and "establish a green brand"...... In the face of questions from the grassroots, the guests answered questions one after another.
A scene of a "fishery and photovoltaic complementation" power plant and wind farm echoing each other in Heiyanzi Town, Fengnan District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, taken on September 24, 2024 (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shiyao
Green transformation, energy first. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to establish a new mechanism for the comprehensive transformation from dual control of energy consumption to dual control of carbon emissions. Since the beginning of this year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have issued a series of policy documents on energy conservation and carbon reduction, making overall arrangements for green and low-carbon development and "double carbon" work in the coming period.
Pan Huimin suggested that the development of new energy should be scientifically planned according to local conditions, combined with local resources and power grid consumption conditions, the overall layout of new energy development, and vigorously promote the development of new energy such as wind power and photovoltaic.
At the same time, it is necessary to increase the scale of green power consumption, accelerate the construction of a number of green industries, green parks, green factories, green data centers, etc., actively participate in green certificate and green power transactions, accelerate the increase in the proportion and scale of green power consumption, and further enhance the market competitiveness of products.
Pan Huimin said that it is necessary to promote the formation of new quality productivity with new technologies and new models, and promote the overall efficiency of the energy science and technology innovation system with enterprises as the main body.
Green transformation should advocate the concept of economical and intensive development. Li Qun said that water conservation is an important path to accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of economic and social development. Over the past decade, the mainland's total water use has achieved zero growth while its GDP has nearly doubled, and its water use efficiency and effectiveness have improved significantly.
On June 24, 2024, in a vegetable seedling greenhouse in Tsuitou Town, Taibai County, Shaanxi Province, an automatic sprinkler irrigation device is watering vegetable seedlings. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Cai Xiangxin
Water is an important ecological good. In November 2023, Sichuan and Ningxia reached the country's first cross-provincial regional water rights transaction. Aba Prefecture in Sichuan Province transferred a total of 15 million cubic meters of water rights for the Yellow River from 2024 to 2026 to the Ningdong Energy and Chemical Base Management Committee in Ningxia for 18 million yuan.
Li Qun said that the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China called for a sound mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products. We will actively explore and standardize the promotion of water rights trading, accelerate the cultivation of a unified water rights trading market, further improve the water rights system, and give better play to the role of water rights reform in promoting the optimal allocation of water resources and the intensive, economical and safe use of water resources. In addition, enterprises should give full play to the role of scientific and technological innovation, vigorously strengthen water conservation, water and other technical research, transformation and upgrading, enhance market competitiveness, and achieve sustainable development.
The green transition depends on the power of reform. Tian Chunxiu said: The problem of unbalanced and inadequate development on the mainland is still quite conspicuous, the ability to innovate in science and technology is not strong, the constraints on resources and the environment are becoming tighter, and the limitations of the traditional productive forces and growth model are becoming increasingly prominent. Against this backdrop, the mainland still faces many challenges in promoting green and low-carbon development.
Tian Chunxiu said that under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, we should further deepen the reform of the ecological civilization system, resolutely break down the institutional and institutional obstacles that affect high-level protection and restrict high-quality development with greater reform determination and more practical reform measures, correctly handle the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, the relationship between the government and the market, the relationship between "dual carbon" commitment and independent action, accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of development mode, and build a green, low-carbon and circular development economic system. Cultivate green productivity and support high-quality development with high-level protection.
Source: Xinhua News Agency