Initial impression ｜ Ecological civilization construction in the new era pays attention to all-round, all-regional, and whole process.
Building ecological civilization is related to people’s well-being and the future of the nation. Before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, due to the long-term extensive development mode, China’s ecological environment situation was very severe-resource constraints tightened, environmental pollution was serious, and the ecosystem was degraded. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, the whole party and the whole country have vigorously promoted the transformation mode, adjusted the structure and changed the kinetic energy with the courage of a strong man, vigorously promoted the construction of ecological civilization, and based on solving the outstanding ecological environment problems, achieved remarkable results in the construction of ecological civilization-the consciousness and initiative of implementing the concept of green development have been significantly enhanced, and the system of ecological civilization system has been accelerated. The reform of state institutions in the field of ecological environment has been vigorously carried out, the level of ecological environment governance has been significantly improved, the intensity of energy and resources consumption has been greatly reduced, pollution prevention and ecological environment protection have been strengthened, the quality of the national ecological environment has been significantly improved, and the overall trend of ecological environment deterioration has been curbed. This has laid a solid foundation for the fundamental improvement of China’s ecological environment and the basic construction of beautiful China in 2035.
In promoting the construction of ecological civilization, the ideas or characteristics embodied in the new era are:
-Pay more attention to the formation of green development mode.The success or failure of ecological environment protection depends on the economic structure and mode of economic development in the final analysis. The relationship between economic development mode and ecological environment problems is reflected in the dialectical relationship between cause and result, essence and phenomenon. From the perspective of world environmental history, the severe ecological environment problems are caused by the large-scale industrialization and urbanization initiated by human society since the industrial revolution. The severe eco-environmental problems in China in previous years were caused by the extensive development mode of high consumption, high pollution and high emission that prevailed for a period after the reform and opening up. Judging from the constraints of resources and environment, in the past, China’s resources and ecological environment capacity was relatively large, so we can let go of our hands and feet to engage in large-scale development and rapid development. However, the current carrying capacity of resources and environment in China has reached the upper limit, and it can no longer carry the traditional extensive development mode. Based on this consideration, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that "to fundamentally improve the ecological environment, we must change the development model that relies too much on increasing the consumption of material resources, too much on extensive scale expansion, and too much on industries with high energy consumption and high emissions." "We should more consciously promote green development, circular development and low-carbon development, never exchange temporary economic growth at the expense of the environment, and never take the road of’ pollution first and then governance’" "Green development is an inevitable requirement of ecological civilization construction".
To take the road of green development, it is necessary to form an economic system and an industrial system with green as the general form, that is, to realize the "greening" of traditional industries and the "industrialization" of green ecology. Whether it is the "greening" of traditional industries or the "industrialization" of green ecology, their common characteristics are good economic benefits, high technology content, low resource consumption and less environmental pollution. The green development mode makes the construction of ecological civilization change from "light green" to "dark green". This is because it has achieved a fundamental change in dealing with the relationship between ecological environmental protection and economic development from "exchanging environment for development" to "optimizing environment with development", from "zero-sum game" to "positive sum game", from "economic independent variable-ecological dependent variable" to "ecological independent variable-economic dependent variable", thus making the construction of ecological civilization and economic development from "two skins" and "two things"
-Pay more attention to the construction of system of ecological civilization.Laws, regulations and institutional mechanisms are the strong bastions and the last guarantee for green development and ecological civilization construction. At present, the outstanding problems in China’s ecological environment protection are mostly related to imperfect system, lax system, lax rule of law, inadequate implementation and ineffective punishment. The construction of ecological civilization in the new era pays special attention to accelerating institutional innovation, increasing institutional supply, improving institutional support, strengthening institutional implementation, and making the system a rigid constraint and an untouchable high-voltage line. The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader believes that "protecting the ecological environment must rely on the system and the rule of law. Only by implementing the strictest system and the strictest rule of law can we provide a reliable guarantee for the construction of ecological civilization. "To promote green development and build ecological civilization, we should focus on building a system of rules and regulations." The Supreme Leader General Secretary has always attached great importance to the construction of system of ecological civilization. First, pay attention to the system construction of main functional areas. Land is the spatial carrier of ecological civilization construction, and the planning of main functional areas is the basic system of land spatial development and protection, and also the fundamental measure to protect the ecological environment from the source. We must unswervingly accelerate the implementation of the strategy of main functional areas, build a scientific and reasonable pattern of urbanization, agricultural development and ecological security, ensure national and regional ecological security, and improve ecological service functions. Second, pay attention to optimizing the evaluation index system of economic and social development. What kind of economic and social development evaluation index system, there will be what kind of achievements and development model. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that,"Incorporate indicators that reflect the status of ecological civilization construction, such as resource consumption, environmental damage and ecological benefits, into the evaluation system of economic and social development, making it an important guide and constraint for promoting ecological civilization construction." Third, attach importance to the establishment of a property right system with clear rights and responsibilities and a supervision system with proper management. For a long time, the deterioration of China’s ecological environment problems is directly related to the lack of owners of natural resources assets and the failure to implement the rights and interests of owners. The Supreme Leader once gave an example to illustrate the problem: "An important reason for the indiscriminate occupation of lakes and wetlands is that property rights are not in place and managers are not in place. Is the central department directly exercising the responsibilities of the owner or authorizing a local government to exercise the responsibilities of the owner? What is the relationship between ownership, use right and management right? If the property rights are unclear and the rights and responsibilities are unclear, the protection will fail, and specific measures for water saving and pollution control such as water rights and emissions trading will be difficult to implement widely. " Based on this, the General Secretary stressed that it is necessary to establish and improve the management system of natural resources assets, implement the ownership of natural resources assets owned by the whole people and establish a system to uniformly exercise the duties of the owners of natural resources assets owned by the whole people in accordance with the principle of separating owners from managers and managing one thing by one department.
-Pay more attention to the protection of natural ecosystems and the environment.Due to the poor background of natural ecology, resources and environment in China, and the huge population pressure and consumption scale, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of natural ecosystem and environment in order to build ecological civilization. The construction of ecological civilization in the new era attaches great importance to all-round, all-regional and whole-process development. This is because: first, the ecological environment is a large system, and various elements are interrelated and interact with each other, which will affect the whole body. "Landscape, forest, field and lake are a community of life, and the lifeblood of people is in the field, the lifeblood of field is in the water, the lifeblood of water is in the mountains, the lifeblood of mountains is in the soil, and the lifeblood of soil is in the trees. Use control and ecological restoration must follow the laws of nature. If people who plant trees only plant trees, control water, and protect fields simply, it is easy to lose sight of one thing and lose sight of another, which will eventually lead to systematic ecological damage. " Second, the construction of ecological civilization involves all aspects, which runs through the whole process and all aspects of economic construction, political construction, cultural construction and social construction. It is difficult to fundamentally solve the problem if it is promoted from a certain ecological environment factor or a certain field alone. The construction of ecological civilization in the new era pays special attention to opening up the "above ground and underground", "onshore and offshore" and "land and ocean", especially to promoting the integration of urban and rural areas, the eastern, central and western regions, the south and the north, and especially to integrating the construction of ecological civilization into all aspects and the whole process of economic, political, cultural and social construction, and jointly promoting new industrialization, urbanization, informationization, agricultural modernization and greening.
-Pay more attention to the promotion of ecological culture and green values.The construction of ecological civilization is closely related to everyone. Therefore, the construction of ecological civilization in the new era pays special attention to strengthening the publicity and education of ecological civilization, strengthening citizens’ environmental awareness, promoting the formation of a moderate, green, low-carbon, civilized and healthy lifestyle and consumption pattern, and forming a good fashion in which the whole society participates. The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized that "the concept of thrift and thrift should be established to speed up the formation of an energy-saving society" and "publicity and education on ecological civilization should be strengthened, and contents such as cherishing ecology, protecting resources and caring for the environment should be included in the national education and training system, and mass spiritual civilization creation activities should be included to firmly establish the concept of ecological civilization in the whole society and form a good fashion in which the whole society participates". Building a good social fashion of ecological civilization needs to carry forward green values and ecological ethics to support it. Therefore, green values and ecological ethics must be brought into the socialist core value system to effectively cultivate people’s ecological awareness and ecological behavior.
Author: Sun Yaoliang, Director and Professor of the History of Marxist Philosophy Department of the Central Party School (National School of Administration)
Reporting/feedback