People’s Daily (09th edition, August 11th, 2023)
A good ecological environment is the fairest public product and the most inclusive people’s livelihood. "Promoting the harmonious coexistence between man and nature" is one of the essential requirements of Chinese modernization summarized by Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Party. In the new era, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core regards the construction of ecological civilization as a fundamental plan related to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, and has carried out a series of pioneering work. The construction of ecological civilization has undergone historic, turning and overall changes from theory to practice. Guided by the supreme leader’s thought of ecological civilization, we will unswervingly follow the road of civilized development of production development, affluent life and good ecology, promote the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and build a beautiful China. This observation edition focuses on this theme.
— — Editor
Accelerate the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature (People’s Watch)
China Academy of Social Sciences Supreme Leader New Age Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center
Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made clear the essential requirements of Chinese modernization from nine aspects, and "promoting the harmonious coexistence between man and nature" is one of the important aspects. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed at the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference: "Support high-quality development with high-quality ecological environment and accelerate the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature." Our party led the people to plan development from the height of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, promoted Chinese modernization, created an ecological miracle and a green development miracle that attracted worldwide attention, and made important contributions to the theory and practice of world modernization.
Promoting the harmonious symbiosis between man and nature is the essential requirement of Chinese modernization.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "Respecting nature, conforming to nature and protecting nature are the inherent requirements of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way." Nature is the basic condition for human survival and development, and the relationship between man and nature is the most basic relationship in human society. The modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature shows the China characteristics of Chinese modernization from the essential requirements.
Meet the inherent requirements of making the achievements of modernization more fair and benefit all the people. Historically, western developed countries have generally taken a road of pollution first and then treatment with high resource consumption, which not only created huge material wealth, but also caused the contradiction between man and nature to deepen. In the process of modernization of human society for more than 200 years, no more than 30 countries have achieved industrialization with a population of no more than 1 billion, but the ecological environment crisis brought to mankind is unprecedented. Chinese-style modernization adheres to the people-centered development thought, and the population of more than 1.4 billion will be modernized as a whole, which will more than double the population in the world who have achieved modernization. In order to achieve this goal, we abandon the old road of pollution before treatment, and embark on a new road of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, so that the achievements of modernization can benefit all people more sustainably.
Meet the goal of common prosperity for all people. Pursuing the common prosperity of all the people is a remarkable feature of Chinese modernization. A good ecological environment is the fairest public product and the most inclusive people’s livelihood. Different from the capital-centered modernization in the west, Chinese modernization adheres to the people-oriented concept, highlights the people-oriented orientation of modernization, insists on development for the people, development depends on the people, and development results are shared by the people, constantly promoting the common prosperity of all people. Chinese-style modernization insists on ecological benefits for the people, ecological benefits for the people, ecological protection for the people, and development of productive forces in the protection of the ecological environment. Through reform and innovation, land, labor, capital, natural resources and other factors are brought to life, and the establishment and improvement of an ecological economic system with industrial ecologicalization and ecological industrialization as the main body are accelerated, so as to better meet the people’s growing needs for a better life and promote the common prosperity of all people and make more obvious substantive progress.
Meet the objective requirements of people’s all-round development. Both material wealth and spiritual wealth are inherent requirements of socialist modernization. Chinese-style modernization is a coordinated modernization of material civilization and spiritual civilization, which requires great wealth in both material wealth and spiritual wealth, and self-confidence and self-improvement in ideology and culture. Chinese-style modernization firmly establishes and practices Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets’s concept, limits economic activities and people’s behavior to the limits that natural resources and ecological environment can bear, and supports high-quality development with high-quality ecological environment, which not only creates more material wealth and spiritual wealth to meet the people’s growing needs for a better life, but also provides more high-quality ecological products to meet the people’s growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment. While building a beautiful China with mountains, water and homesickness, it promotes the all-round enrichment of things and the all-round development of people.
Meet the common requirements of building a home of destiny and common earth. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "There is only one earth for mankind, and it is the common responsibility of all countries to protect the ecological environment and promote sustainable development." The earth is the only home for all mankind to live on. Protecting nature means protecting mankind, and building ecological civilization means benefiting mankind. In sharp contrast to that practice of some western countries that often evade the responsibility of global ecological protection and pass on their own ecological crisis, Chinese modernization promotes the common values of all mankind, such as peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, and seeks its own development while firmly safeguarding world peace and development, and better safeguards world peace and development with its own development. Chinese-style modernization has always stood at the height of being responsible for human civilization and future generations, and joined hands with all countries in the world to build the foundation of ecological civilization, take the road of green development, build a community of life on earth, actively build a home of the earth where man and nature coexist harmoniously, the economy and the environment advance together, and all countries in the world develop together, so that the concept of green development will be deeply rooted in people’s hearts, the road of global ecological civilization will be stable and far-reaching, and the development achievements and good ecology will be promoted to benefit people of all countries more fairly.
Remarkable achievements have been made in the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
"Our motherland is bluer in sky, greener in mountains and clearer in water", this sentence in the Party’s Report to the 20th CPC National Congress tells the personal feelings of the people of China. From Asian elephants going north to south, it has attracted global attention, to "basking in my ‘ Home Blue ’ " The collection of photographic works is very popular, and people feel that the living environment is getting better and better. The achievements in the construction of ecological civilization in the new era have attracted worldwide attention and become a remarkable symbol of historic achievements and changes in the cause of the party and the state in the new era.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the scientific guidance of the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought, the CPC Central Committee with the supreme leader as the core has taken ecological civilization construction as a fundamental plan related to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, and carried out a series of pioneering work with unprecedented determination, strength and effectiveness. The ecological civilization construction has undergone historic, turning and overall changes from theory to practice. Promulgated the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization and the Overall Plan for the Reform of Ecological Civilization System, and revised many related laws such as the Air Pollution Prevention Law, the Water Pollution Prevention Law, and the Yangtze River Protection Law; Establish and improve the systems of "Party and government share responsibility" and "one post and two responsibilities" for ecological environmental protection, and build an ecological civilization system … … This series of major institutional arrangements and decision-making arrangements have led and guaranteed the major transformation of China’s ecological civilization construction from key rectification to systematic governance, from passive response to active action, from global environmental governance participants to leaders, from practical exploration to scientific theory guidance, and the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature has continuously reached a new level.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has completed 1.02 billion mu of afforestation and 305 million mu of sand control. By the end of 2022, the average annual concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in cities at or above the prefecture level in China had dropped to 29 μ g/m3, the proportion of excellent surface water quality sections reached 87.9%, and the proportion of excellent coastal water quality reached 81.9%. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has supported an average annual economic growth of more than 6% with an average annual growth rate of 3% in energy consumption, making it one of the countries with the fastest reduction in energy consumption intensity in the world. In the new era of China, the "beautiful economy" has developed and expanded, and the ecological advantages have been continuously transformed into development advantages. The green mountains and green hills are generating more and more ecological, economic and social benefits.
Make important contributions to the theory and practice of world modernization.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "We should stand at the height of being responsible for human civilization, respect, conform to and protect nature, explore the road of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, promote the coordination and unity of economic development and ecological protection, and build a prosperous, clean and beautiful world." Chinese modernization adheres to the concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, pays attention to the simultaneous promotion of material civilization construction and ecological civilization construction, and unswervingly follows the road of civilized development of production development, affluent life and good ecology, which has made important contributions to scientifically handling the relationship between man and nature and promoting the innovative development of world modernization theory and practice.
Provide new modernization options for developing countries. How to coordinate the relationship between economic and social development and population, resources and environment, and realize protection in development and development in protection is a major issue that developing countries have to face in the process of exploring modernization. In the process of development, some developing countries once copied the modern old road of pollution first and then treatment in the west, which destroyed the ecological environment and caused irreparable losses. The people of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China promote Chinese-style modernization, adhere to the complete, accurate and comprehensive implementation of the new development concept, firmly establish and practice Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets’s concept, plan development from the height of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, protect natural value and value-added natural capital in the protection of ecological environment, protect the potential and stamina of economic and social development, and promote the continuous transformation of green mountains and green hills into Jinshan Yinshan, which provides a new choice for developing countries to move towards modernization independently. As a big developing country, China is willing to work with other countries to adhere to the road of green development, build the foundation of ecological civilization, assume the responsibility of a big country, show the role of a big country, give full play to its leading role, strengthen South-South cooperation and cooperation with neighboring countries, and provide financial and technical support to developing countries within its capacity.
Explore a new path of win-win cooperation to promote global environmental governance. Facing the challenge of global environmental risks, all countries are a community of destiny in the same boat. To build a community of life on earth, we must break the barriers and barriers of unilateralism and build a clean and beautiful world through hand in hand. In the process of modernization, China has always adhered to the concept of community of human destiny and actively promoted pragmatic cooperation in the fields of international resource conservation and ecological environment protection. Adhere to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, take the initiative to undertake environmental governance obligations suited to national conditions, development stages and capabilities, strive to build a fair, reasonable, win-win global environmental governance system, firmly implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, participate in the agenda of global climate negotiations with a positive and constructive attitude, make historic contributions to the conclusion and implementation of the Paris Agreement, and promote the construction of a fair, reasonable, win-win global climate governance system. Committed to promoting the green development of the "Belt and Road", through initiating a series of pragmatic cooperation such as the establishment of the "Belt and Road" international alliance for green development, green has become the background color of the "Belt and Road" and made important contributions to global environmental governance.
Contribute wisdom and strength to promoting global sustainable development. At present, the global extinction rate is accelerating, and biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation pose great risks to human survival and development. In the face of a series of ecological and environmental problems, human beings are a community of destiny, and no country can be immune to it. To achieve global sustainable development in the process of modernization, we must coordinate the relationship between development and protection and explore a new way of modernization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously. Under the scientific guidance of the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought, in the process of promoting Chinese modernization, China pursues harmony between man and nature, green development and prosperity, love for nature, scientific governance spirit, and cooperative response, and works with other countries in the world to create a harmonious and livable human home and a community of life on earth, thus contributing to global sustainable development with China wisdom, China’s plan and China’s strength.
(Written by: Zhang Yongsheng)
Planting high-quality green background (written by everyone)
Wang Jinnan
Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that Chinese-style modernization is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and profoundly pointed out that promoting green and low-carbon economic and social development is the key link to achieve high-quality development. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed at the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference: "We should accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of development mode, adhere to green and low-carbon development as a fundamental solution to ecological and environmental problems, accelerate the formation of green production methods and lifestyles, and plant a green background of high-quality development." To promote Chinese modernization in the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, we must adhere to ecological priority, economical and intensive, green and low-carbon development, and take the road of civilized development of production development, affluent life and good ecology.
Ecological environmental protection is not only a major economic issue, but also a major social and political issue. To solve this major problem, we must adhere to green and low-carbon development and accelerate the transformation of development mode. In the decade of the new era, China’s energy structure has been continuously optimized, and the proportion of coal in primary energy consumption has dropped from 68.5% to 56%. From 2013 to 2022, the average concentration of PM2.5 in key cities nationwide decreased by 57%. In 2022, the proportion of days with excellent air quality in cities at prefecture level and above will be 86.5%, and the proportion of days with heavy pollution will drop to less than 1%, making China the fastest country in improving air quality in the world. Since the beginning of this century, about 1/4 of the newly added green area in the world has come from China.
The ecological environment continues to improve, and the efficiency of energy resources utilization has been greatly improved, which is inseparable from the green transformation of economic and social development. In the decade of the new era, China has continuously intensified the rectification of scattered polluting enterprises and clusters, eliminated about 300 million tons of backward and overcapacity steel and 400 million tons of cement, and eliminated more than 30 million old and high-emission motor vehicles. The production and sales of new energy vehicles have been ranked first in the world for many years. At the same time, we should also see that China’s ecological civilization construction still faces many contradictions and challenges, the foundation for a stable and positive ecological environment is still not stable, the structural, root and trend pressures of ecological environmental protection have not been fundamentally alleviated, and the ecological civilization construction is still in a critical period of pressure superposition and heavy load. Compared with the people’s expectation for a better life, and the goal of building a beautiful China, the quality of the ecological environment still lags behind the requirements of building a new development pattern, promoting high-quality development and building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.
In the past 200 years, developed countries have completed industrialization, urbanization and modernization, and only after the economic development has reached a considerable level have they gradually solved the problems of pollution control and ecological damage restoration. China has a population of more than 1.4 billion, and nearly 20% of the world’s population is supported by 9% of the world’s cultivated land and 6% of fresh water resources. In the process of development, ecological environment protection is under great pressure. The realistic national conditions determine that to promote Chinese modernization, we must take the overall green transformation of economic and social development as the guide, the green and low-carbon development of energy and industry as the starting point, the optimization of land spatial pattern as the carrier, and the green production and consumption as the driving force, accelerate the formation of industrial structure, production mode, lifestyle and spatial pattern that save resources and protect the environment, and promote economic and social development on the basis of efficient utilization of resources and green and low-carbon development, and take the modernization road of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
The solution of ecological and environmental problems is a systematic project. In order to solve the ecological and environmental problems in the overall green transformation of economic and social development, we must continue to promote the structural adjustment of industry, energy and transportation, continuously strengthen the prevention and control of sources, firmly grasp the key of industrial structural adjustment, reduce excess and backward production capacity, increase new growth momentum, and promote multi-level collaborative innovation of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in key areas, key areas and key links. On this basis, we will accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries, high-tech industries and modern service industries, cultivate and expand energy-saving and environmental protection industries, clean production industries and clean energy industries, develop efficient agriculture and advanced manufacturing industries, accelerate the research and development, popularization and application of advanced technologies for energy conservation and carbon reduction, and constantly consolidate the industrial foundation of a green and low-carbon circular development economic system.
To realize the effective protection and sustainable development of the ecological environment, we need both continuous efforts in time and scientific planning in space. An important aspect of establishing and perfecting a green and low-carbon circular development economic system is to continuously strengthen the overall planning and coordinated control of production, living and ecological space uses. This requires adhering to the red line of cultivated land and ecological protection, optimizing the pattern of land spatial development, strengthening land spatial planning and use control, and coordinating the delineation of control boundaries such as the red line of ecological protection, permanent basic farmland and urban development boundaries. Scientifically coordinate population distribution, economic layout, land use and ecological environment protection, scientifically arrange production, living and ecological space, form a new pattern of land space development and protection with obvious main functions, complementary advantages and high-quality development, and handle the relationship between population, economy, society, resources and environment.
It is very important to solve the ecological and environmental problems in promoting green and low-carbon development and do a good job in the construction of the mind. It is necessary to continuously enhance the awareness of saving, environmental protection and ecology of the whole people. In practice, many places actively carry out green life creation actions such as conservation-oriented institutions, green families, green schools, green communities, green trips, green shopping malls and green buildings, and promote the concept of green life to all aspects such as food, clothing, housing, transportation and tourism by advocating a simple and moderate, green and low-carbon lifestyle. These practices are conducive to enhancing the whole society’s understanding and recognition of the green and low-carbon lifestyle, gathering strong impetus to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of development mode, caring for the ecological environment, and creating a good atmosphere for the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
(The author is an academician of China Academy of Engineering and dean of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment)
Construct a big pattern of protection and governance from the top of the mountain to the ocean
Promoting the modernization of ecological environment governance system and governance capacity (thematic thinking)
Chu songyan
The modernization of ecological environment governance system and governance capacity is an important part of the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity. In the ten years of the new era, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core and under the scientific guidance of the Supreme Leader’s ecological civilization thought, China has established and improved a modern environmental governance system with the participation of Party Committee leaders, government-led, enterprises, social organizations and the public, and continuously improved the modernization level of ecological environmental governance. The construction of ecological civilization has undergone historic, turning and overall changes from theory to practice, and the construction of beautiful China has made great strides.
Strengthen the Party’s overall leadership over the construction of ecological civilization. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out at the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference: "Building a beautiful China is an important goal of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, and we must uphold and strengthen the overall leadership of the party." Adhering to the party’s overall leadership over the construction of ecological civilization is the fundamental guarantee for the construction of ecological civilization in China. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has placed the construction of ecological civilization in a prominent position in its overall work, made a series of major strategic arrangements, and promoted the continuous improvement of the modernization level of China’s ecological environment governance. Give full play to the role of the central eco-environmental protection inspector, strictly implement the responsibility of eco-environmental protection from a political perspective, constantly establish and improve the relevant policy system, and gradually form a "big environmental protection" work pattern of "party and government sharing responsibility" and "one post and two responsibilities", which has solved the problems of environmental pollution and ecological destruction that a large number of people have strongly reflected. We will promptly study and formulate the responsibility system for ecological environmental protection of local party and government leading cadres, establish a comprehensive responsibility system with consistent powers and responsibilities, clear rewards and punishments, and interlocking, conscientiously implement the list of responsibilities for ecological civilization construction, and promote the formation of a strong synergy. Give full play to the role of assessment baton, improve the assessment and evaluation system, and constantly enhance the practical skills of leading cadres in party member in ecological civilization construction. This series of important measures has effectively improved the modernization level of China’s ecological environment governance capacity.
Adhere to the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, fields, lakes, grass and sand. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed at the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference: "We must adhere to the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, fields, lakes, grass and sand, and build a big pattern of protection and management from the top of the mountain to the ocean." Eco-environmental governance is a systematic project, which needs to consider the complexity of environmental factors, the integrity of ecosystem, the continuity of physical and geographical units and the sustainability of economic and social development, and seek the way of eco-environmental governance from the perspective of systematic engineering and overall situation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has put forward that "the landscape, forest, fields, lakes, grass and sand are a community of life" according to the integrity, systematicness and inherent laws of the natural ecosystem, adhered to the integrated protection and systematic governance of landscape, forest, fields, lakes, grass and sand, and built a big pattern of protection and governance from the top of the mountain to the ocean. Focusing on national key ecological function area, ecological protection red line and nature reserve, we will start the integrated protection and restoration project of mountains, rivers, fields, lakes, grass and sand, and make overall plans to promote systematic management, comprehensive management and source management. Vigorously implement a number of ecological environment restoration projects, such as protection and restoration of shelterbelts and natural forests, returning farmland to forests and grasslands, ecological restoration of mines, and "blue bay" rectification actions, and carry out large-scale land greening actions to promote the continuous increase of forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers and lakes, and effectively reverse the trend of land desertification. This series of forward-looking thinking, overall planning and overall promotion,Vigorously promote the modernization level of ecological environment management, and lay a solid foundation for building a beautiful China.
The legal system of ecological environmental protection has been continuously improved. The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out at the National Conference on Ecological Environmental Protection: "We should strengthen the guarantee of the rule of law, make overall plans to promote the revision of relevant laws in the fields of ecological environment, resources and energy, and implement the strictest ecological environment governance system of above-ground and underground, land and sea planning and regional linkage." To strengthen the protection and governance of the ecological environment, we must rely on the system and the rule of law, and protect the ecological environment with the strictest system and the strictest rule of law. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, our party has promoted the construction of ecological civilization with the rule of law, put the construction of ecological civilization into an institutionalized and standardized track, and built a scientific, rigorous and systematic legal system for ecological environmental protection. By writing "ecological civilization" into the Constitution, we will formulate laws to protect ecological security, such as the Yangtze River Protection Law, the Yellow River Protection Law and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law, and amend laws to protect and improve the environment, such as the Environmental Protection Law, the Land Management Law and the Forest Law. We will make efforts to solve the problems of low illegal cost and insufficient punishment in some places in the past, and make overall plans to solve the problems of whether the law is hard, not strict and not heavy. Through unremitting efforts, the laws and regulations system of ecological civilization covering all key areas, all kinds of resources and all environmental elements has been basically established and constantly improved, which has provided a strong legal guarantee for the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
(The author is the director and professor of the Social and Ecological Civilization Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School (National School of Administration))
