Beijing, 6 Jun (Xinhua) -- On 6 June, the Economic Information Daily published an article entitled "Energy Transition 'Toward New and Changing' Industrial Upgrading 'Going Green' -- New Trends in Green and Low-carbon Development from the June Five-Year Environment Day." June 5 is Environment Day. The theme of this year's June Five-Year Environment Day is "Building a Modernization of Harmony between Man and Nature", and the national main event was held in Jinan, Shandong. Industry insiders believe that green and low-carbon development has become a global trend and the only way to build a beautiful China.
Towards the new and changing towards the green. The reporter learned in the interview that in recent years, all walks of life across the country have taken active actions, the new blueprint for green and low-carbon development has accelerated, the quality of the ecological environment has maintained an improvement trend, the track of energy transformation "to new and change" has gradually heated up, and the industrial development "walking to green" is full of momentum.
The quality of the ecological environment continues to improve
"3, 2, 1, put!" With an order, the fish fry jumping alive rushed along the slide to the great rivers of the motherland.
On June 5, the 2023 World Environment Day joint action on fish breeding and release in the hydropower industry was opened, and such scenes were staged in 105 hydropower stations across the country, releasing more than 8.99 million fish of various rare protection, unique to the river basin and important economic importance.
Zheng Sheng'an, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Hydropower Engineering Society, said at the opening ceremony that carrying out joint actions and scientific popularization of fish breeding and release can not only supplement and optimize aquatic biological resources, improve the ecological environment of waters, but also help to improve public awareness of ecological environmental protection and focus on building a national participation system for ecological civilization construction.
It is understood that the follow-up joint operation will continue, and it is planned to release 23 species of national rare protected fish, 43 species of endemic fish in the river basin, and 18 species of important economic fish, with a total of more than 26 million fish.
A good ecological environment is the most inclusive people's livelihood and well-being. At the national main event, the guests generally believed that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland has strengthened ecological environmental protection in an all-round, all-region and whole-process manner, with unprecedented determination, intensity and results, promoting historic, turning and overall changes in ecological environmental protection, creating an ecological miracle and green development miracle that has attracted worldwide attention, and laying a solid foundation for the realization of the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
The recently released "2022 Communiqué on the Status of China's Ecological Environment" shows that the quality of the mainland's ecological environment has maintained an improvement trend in the past year, and the annual improvement goal has been successfully completed. For example, the average concentration of PM2.5 in 339 cities at the prefecture level and above in China is 29 micrograms per cubic meter, and comparable data have achieved "seven consecutive declines" since the "13th Five-Year Plan"; The proportion of sections with excellent water quality (Class I.-III.) was 87.9%, an increase of 3.0 percentage points year-on-year, achieving "seven consecutive increases" since the "13th Five-Year Plan".
UNEP Executive Director Inger Anderson said in a video message at the main event: "China has shown strong leadership in protecting and building magnificent rivers and mountains. At the domestic level, China is pursuing low-carbon and high-quality development under the guidance of the vision of ecological civilization, and the quality of air and fresh water has continued to improve in recent years. At the international level, China, as President of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, has played a leading role. ”
New energy track "unlimited scenery"
On the blue sea in the east, the mainland's first deep-sea floating wind power platform "CNOOC Guanlan" stands. Recently, it was successfully integrated into the Wenchang Oilfield Group Power Grid, officially opening a new milestone for the transmission of green power for offshore oil and gas fields.
Thousands of kilometers away in the plateau valley, as part of the national wind and solar integration demonstration base in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, the construction of 1800 MW photovoltaic power generation project in Angdo and 800 MW photovoltaic power generation project in Gongjue Latuo, Tibet has also begun.
To achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, while maintaining the bottom line of energy security, green and low-carbon development is required to adhere to the "first establishment and then break", and put the improvement of new energy supply capacity in the first place.
The reporter learned at the national main event that by the end of 2022, the proportion of mainland coal in total energy consumption had dropped from 72.4% in 2005 to 56.2%, and the installed capacity of renewable energy exceeded the installed capacity of coal power for the first time. Hydropower, wind power, solar power, biomass power generation and nuclear power under construction all rank first in the world.
Since the beginning of this year, the green and low-carbon transformation of mainland energy has continued to make solid progress. According to the "2023 Energy Work Guidelines", the annual installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic will increase by about 160 million kilowatts. Wind power and photovoltaic power generation accounted for 15.3% of the total electricity consumption of the whole society.
According to data from the National Energy Administration, from January to April this year, the national wind power photovoltaic installed capacity was 62.51 million kilowatts, accounting for 74% of the country's new installed capacity, an increase of 11.5 percentage points year-on-year. The national wind power photovoltaic power generation reached 482.8 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 26.8%, accounting for 17.2% of the entire society's electricity consumption, an increase of 3 percentage points over the same period last year.
As of the end of April this year, the installed capacity of wind power in mainland China was 380 million kilowatts, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation was 440 million kilowatts, and the total installed capacity of wind power photovoltaic power generation exceeded 800 million kilowatts, reaching 820 million kilowatts, accounting for 30.9% of the country's installed power generation capacity.
Industry greening injects "new momentum"
While the adjustment of the energy structure is steadily advancing, the industrial structure is also constantly being optimized and upgraded, injecting "new kinetic energy" into development.
Recently, Zhongtong Bus Co., Ltd., located in Liaocheng, Shandong, ushered in a special order - the president of Kyrgyzstan personally came to the door to purchase 1,000 natural gas buses.
In 2022, the city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, purchased 120 buses of this model, which were in good condition for half a year, so an additional order for 1,000 buses was placed to completely replace the original fuel buses. This has also become China's largest bus order in countries along the "Belt and Road" since the beginning of this year.
New energy vehicles are the general trend of the automobile industry and the representative of green and low-carbon lifestyle. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to April this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China reached 2.291 million and 2.222 million units, an increase of 42.8% year-on-year, and the market share reached 27%. Exports of new energy vehicles reached 348,000 units, up 170% y/y.
In order to release the consumption potential of new energy vehicles, the executive meeting of the State Council held on June 2 proposed to continue and optimize the new energy vehicle purchase tax reduction policy.
It's not just new energy vehicles. In recent years, the mainland has continued to promote the improvement of green product supply capacity, and the development of low-carbon industries is in the ascendant. According to the data released at the 2023 Industrial Green Development Conference, nearly 30,000 green products have been promoted so far, and the output of the main links of the photovoltaic industry chain accounts for more than 70% of the world.
Outside the energy storage workshop of the Qilu Energy Storage Valley Zero-carbon Smart Industrial Park in Zibo High-tech Zone, Shandong, dozens of energy storage containers are neatly placed, waiting for safety tests such as flooding and exposure to be completed and sent to all parts of the country. Zibo, an old industrial city known for its heavy industrial structure, is on the road of "getting rid of heavy and turning light", with 31 photovoltaic and wind power enterprises and 20 energy storage enterprises, and the development of green energy industry chain is beginning to take shape.
"The construction of ecological civilization in the mainland should be further promoted from many aspects such as industrial structure adjustment, pollution control, ecological protection, and climate change, which is a strategic choice for the mainland to achieve the new development stage of the second centenary goal." Meng Jian, a professor at Fudan University's School of Journalism, said. (Reporter Wang Lu, Zhang Wuyue)