Source: Economic Daily
In recent years, the "appearance" of the environment throughout the country has generally improved, and the people's sense of ecological environment acquisition, happiness and security has been significantly enhanced. How do you summarize the reasons behind this change? How to achieve synergy between promoting economic development and environmental protection? How to grasp the key points of the "14th Five-Year Plan" to fight the battle against pollution? The Economic Daily reporter interviewed Li Haisheng, president of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences.
Reporter: What are the main reasons for China's historic achievements in ecological environmental protection?
Li Haisheng: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has placed the construction of ecological civilization and ecological environmental protection in an important position in governing the country. China's comprehensive strengthening of the construction of ecological civilization, the determination, strength, and results are unprecedented, and the construction of ecological civilization and ecological environmental protection have undergone historic, turning, and overall changes, the main reasons are the following three aspects.
First, Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization provides a fundamental guide for ecological environmental protection. The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has profoundly summarized the law of the development of human civilization and incorporated the construction of ecological civilization into the overall layout of the "five-in-one" and "four comprehensive" strategic layouts of socialism with Chinese characteristics. A series of important speeches and instructions from General Secretary Xi Jinping have continuously enriched Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, providing us with strong theoretical guidance and fundamental compliance in ideology and action to better promote ecological environmental protection.
Second, the reform of the ecological civilization system provides a strong guarantee for ecological environmental protection. In recent years, China has successively formulated more than 40 reform programs involving the construction of ecological civilization, such as the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization and the Overall Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System, continuously strengthening the top-level design of ecological environmental protection, improving the assessment and evaluation system of ecological civilization, and stimulating the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of government departments at all levels. In addition, the in-depth implementation of the central ecological environmental protection supervision system, as well as the continuous strengthening of grass-roots environmental supervision functions and other measures, the implementation of "party and government responsibility" and "one post double responsibility", to solve a large number of long-term want to solve but not solved the "old and difficult" problems.
The third is to fight the battle against pollution and press the "acceleration button" for ecological environmental protection. The Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China listed resolutely fighting the battle against pollution as one of the three major battles to win the battle to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. It has carried out the defense of blue sky, clear water and pure land, mobilized the strength of all parties, highlighted accurate, scientific, legal and systematic pollution control, overcome the prominent ecological and environmental problems around the people, and achieved positive results in the replacement of loose coal in the heating season in key areas, the elimination of black and odorous water bodies in cities at the prefecture level and above, and the decline in ozone concentration.
Reporter: Developing the economy and protecting the environment are all aimed at improving people's livelihood and well-being. In practice, how to promote the synergy between economic development and environmental protection?
Li Haisheng: Insist on making simultaneous efforts and moving in the opposite direction from the two aspects of economic development and environmental protection, and strive to achieve organic integration and benign interaction between the two.
The first is to profoundly understand the dialectical and unified relationship between ecological environmental protection and economic development. The purpose of economic development and environmental protection is unified, both to meet the needs of the people for a better life; the contents of the two are complementary and can be transformed into each other. On the one hand, if the ecological environmental protection is done well and the quality of the ecological environment is improved, the economic development will be sustainable and the development space will be broader; on the other hand, economic development can provide a solid material guarantee for the restoration of ecological environmental protection and provide the people with more high-quality ecological products. What we want is high-quality development, and the pursuit of green and sustainable development. Taking The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas as an example, compared with 2016, the GDP of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas increased by 20% in 2020, the average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) decreased by 30%, and the number of heavily polluted days decreased by 60%, which is a good proof of the complementary relationship between ecological environmental protection and economic development.
The second is to accelerate the construction of a governance system and the modernization of governance capabilities. Promoting the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity in the field of ecological environment is not only an important part of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, but also an indispensable way to practice and promote Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. Focusing on the major needs of the country, we should focus on improving the overall coordination mechanism in the whole society's awareness of ecological environmental protection, the ecological environment management system, assessment and incentive mechanism, and the management of environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction binding indicators, promote the improvement of the environmental governance system, and promote high-quality economic and social development with high-level protection of the ecological environment.
The third is to work together to create a large environmental protection pattern of diversified co-governance. Environmental management is far from enough to rely on the government, it is necessary to achieve the diversified participation of other government departments and all social forces to form a united front of ecological and environmental protection. Through giving play to the supervisory role of social organizations, we will consolidate the foundation of grass-roots social governance. Promote green development with green production and consumption, and force the green transformation of production methods through green consumption, so that "green" becomes the norm of life. From subsistence to moderate prosperity, the consumption demand of 1.4 billion people is huge, and to achieve sustainable development, it must be a resource-saving and environment-friendly green development. By saving 1 kWh of electricity per person per day, 1.4 billion people can build 110 million-level generator sets and reduce coal burning by 160 million tons per year.
Reporter: This year is the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan. In accordance with the requirements of the central authorities, what key points should be grasped in the battle against pollution in depth?
Li Haisheng: From the "13th Five-Year Plan" to the "14th Five-Year Plan", from "resolute" to "in-depth" to fight the battle against pollution, we must not only consolidate the achievements of ecological environmental protection, but also face a complex situation and many challenges. It is necessary to adhere to the system concept, take pollution reduction and carbon reduction synergy as the general starting point, make overall plans to promote coordinated governance, deeply grasp the connotation of "scientific pollution control", promote the formation of a new pattern of scientific pollution control, achieve the greatest effect of emission reduction and pollution control at the smallest economic cost, and provide scientific and technological guarantees for the in-depth fight against pollution.
Adhere to the system concept and help the coordinated development of the "three systems". Ecology itself is an organic system, ecological governance must be in accordance with the idea of system engineering, with systematic thinking, with the overall concept of advancement, so as to conform to the internal laws of ecological environmental protection. For example, the "root cause" of ozone lies in VOCs and nitrogen oxides, and non-point source pollution lies in pesticides and fertilizers. To coordinate the harmonious coexistence of good people and nature, it is necessary to deal with the relationship between development and emission reduction, the whole and the part, short-term and medium-term and long-term, the focus is to focus on the synergy of the three systems of nature, production and life, deeply understand the development law of natural systems, keep the ecological security boundary of natural systems, promote industrial ecology, energy greening, promote the green transformation of production systems, and at the same time actively cultivate the green model of living systems and promote green lifestyles to become a new trend.
Adhere to coordinated governance to improve quality and efficiency for the battle against pollution. The battle against pollution is a big battle involving multiple departments and fields, and we must adhere to coordinated governance. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to seize the historic opportunity of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, promote the coordinated treatment of pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2), and use scientific and technological innovation to support the construction of green standard systems and green engineering systems. It is necessary to coordinate the control of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) pollution, and do a good job in multi-scale coordination of "region-region" and "city-city" horizontally and "city-region-country" vertically. At the same time, we will strive to promote the collaborative innovation model and mechanism of science and technology, promote the collaborative innovation model of interdisciplinary cross-integration, multi-technology and multi-industry cross-border integration, and integration of production, education, research and application in view of major regional and river basin ecological and environmental problems, further optimize the allocation of scientific and technological resources, and strive to form an overall synergy to support the improvement of the ecological environment.
Around the "five sciences", escort the scientific pollution control. Scientific pollution control is the basis, premise and key to accurate pollution control and pollution management according to law. First, around policy science, it is necessary to use scientific data and scientific research results to support the formulation of policies, achieve the maximum emission reduction effect with the smallest economic cost, and help further improve the ecological environment policy system. The second is to focus on standard science, strengthen the research of ecological environment benchmarks and standards, and create a scientific standard system that meets the requirements of green development. The third is to focus on management science, to support the top-level design of scientific management, and to build a high-quality management system that comprehensively uses administrative, legal, economic, educational, scientific and technological means. Fourth, around the technical science, it is necessary to strengthen the research and development of key technologies of "card neck" and "subversive", promote the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, and effectively solve problems in the field of ecological environmental protection. Fifth, around the science of supervision, we must focus on strengthening the research of supervision and law enforcement equipment and equipment, improve the level of intelligence, precision and efficiency of ecological and environmental supervision, and improve the efficiency and intensity of supervision.
(Economic Daily-China Economic Network reporter Cao Hongyan)
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