Ten years of extraordinary achievements have profound implications. How to explain China’s practice with China’s theory? Xinhuanet, in conjunction with the national high-end think tank of the Central Party School (National School of Administration), launched "Sike Lecture Hall Party School Open Class (Season 3)" and "Convince People with Reason: Ten" Why "in Ten Years". Ten young teachers of Party School take you to explore the "China code" behind extraordinary achievements through ten short theoretical videos. In this issue, Wang Ru, a professor in the Department of Social and Ecological Civilization of the Central Party School (National School of Administration), tells why "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" is.
Full text of the speech:
Hello everyone! I am Wang Ru from the Social and Ecological Civilization Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School (National School of Administration).
I wonder what one thing everyone will do before going to work or school every morning? I am used to looking at the weather forecast before going out every day, but there has been a big change in the past two years, that is, I no longer look at the air quality forecast specifically. Everyone may feel the same way as me. In recent years, there have been more and more blue skies and less foggy weather, and air quality is no longer an important factor restricting our daily activities. I often take online stories about smog as examples in class a few years ago, such as "Walking a dog but not seeing a dog, holding a dog rope in your hand, seeing a rope but not seeing your hand, a dog tells people to leave". In recent years, if you give these examples again, it will be difficult to get everyone’s resonance. Our feeling is actually supported by sufficient data. In 2020, the average concentration of PM2.5 in China decreased by 28.8% compared with 2015. The improvement of air quality is only a microcosm of the achievements of China’s ecological civilization construction in recent years. "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" is changing from concept to reality, and each of us is a witness, witness and beneficiary.
On August 15th, 2005, when the Supreme Leader visited Yucun, Anji County, Zhejiang Province, he first proposed "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets". Nine days later, under the pen name Zhexin, he published a short comment entitled "Green Water and Green Mountains are also Jinshan Yinshan" in the column of "New Words of Zhijiang" in Zhejiang Daily, further pointing out that "we pursue the harmony between man and nature, the harmony between economy and society, and in layman’s terms, we want both green water and green mountains and Jinshan Yinshan." The "green water and green mountains" mentioned here mainly refers to the advantages of ecological environment. Now we understand it from the ecological point of view as the general name of high-quality natural ecosystems, including forests, grasslands, wetlands, lakes, rivers, oceans and so on. The "Jinshan Yinshan" here is not only the economic value produced in the process of human development and utilization of resources and environment, but also the comprehensive value of economic value, ecological value and social value. "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" does not want to exchange "leaves" for "tickets", but to break the binary opposition between development and protection, insist that "protecting the environment means protecting the productive forces, and improving the environment means developing the productive forces", and turn ecological advantages into comprehensive development advantages.
It is precisely because of the recognition of "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee has paid unprecedented attention to the construction of ecological civilization, protected the ecological environment like eyes, and treated the ecological environment like life. A beautiful picture of China with bluer sky, greener mountains and clearer water has been slowly spread on the land of China.
In the past ten years, the environmental quality has obviously improved. We have fought a beautiful battle for pollution prevention and control against the outstanding environmental problems that harm people’s health. In addition to the aforementioned blue sky defense war, the pure land defense war and the clear water defense war have also achieved remarkable results. The governance of contaminated land has been strengthened, the safe utilization rate of contaminated land has reached about 90%, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers has also decreased significantly. The proportion of excellent water quality reached 83.4%, especially in the main stream of the Yangtze River, which made a historic breakthrough. A typical example is that the number of "smiling angels" Yangtze finless porpoises is increasing year by year. They have small eyes and big smiles. They were once on the verge of extinction due to water pollution and illegal use of fishing gear in the Yangtze River basin. With the restoration of the water environment, this "giant panda in the water" listed as a national first-class protected animal has ushered in new vitality.
In this decade, the ecological restoration has achieved more remarkable results. We have initially drawn a red line for ecological protection, and the area within the red line accounts for a quarter of China’s land area. Major projects for the protection and restoration of national important ecosystems have been implemented, and the national ecological security barrier has been built, and the security and stability of ecosystems are constantly improving. My hometown is in Weihai, Shandong Province, where there is a famous tourist attraction called Huaxia City, which is located in Longshan area. It used to be tree-lined and beautiful. At the end of 1970s, with the acceleration of urban construction, it became a concentrated mining area for building stones, and a large number of mountains and forests were destroyed. Since 2003, with the support of the government, Huaxia City has continued to carry out mine ecological restoration and the construction of ecological scenic spots. After more than ten years of continuous efforts, it has finally turned the mine ruins into a 5A-level scenic spot with good ecology and beautiful scenery. At the same time, it has also made the surrounding people rich, attracted thousands of people to work in the scenic spot and raised the income level. Of course, Huaxia City is only a small microcosm of our achievements in ecological protection and restoration in recent years. At present, there are 136 such "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" innovation and practice bases all over the country, which are driving the motherland to become greener and more beautiful.
In this decade, economic development has become more green and low-carbon. We have changed the economic development model of high consumption, high emission and high pollution in the past, adhered to the new development concept, vigorously promoted the green transformation and upgrading of economic structure, energy structure and industrial structure, and achieved rapid development of strategic emerging industries such as energy conservation and environmental protection. China has become one of the countries with the fastest energy consumption intensity reduction in the world. The installed capacity of green power such as wind power and photovoltaic power generation and the production and sales of new energy vehicles have reached the first place in the world, and green has increasingly become the bright background of economic and social development. Interestingly, the development of new energy sources such as wind and light sometimes brings us unexpected "surprises". The State Power Investment Group has a photovoltaic sand control project in Gonghe County, Qinghai Province, which was originally aimed at photovoltaic power generation. As a result, after ten years of operation, it was found that grass grew under photovoltaic panels, the total biomass and biological species also increased significantly, and the local ecological environment was greatly improved.
In this decade, China has made greater contribution to global ecological security. We have accelerated the construction of a beautiful China at home, promoted the improvement of the global ecological environment governance system externally, and effectively demonstrated the responsibility of a big country. Afforestation in China accounts for about a quarter of the world’s artificial afforestation, and the carbon dioxide emissions per unit GDP have decreased by about 34%. It is clearly put forward that peak carbon dioxide emissions should be achieved by 2030 and carbon neutrality should be achieved by 2060, which has made important contributions to coping with global climate change. We also try our best to help developing countries improve the level of ecological environment management. For example, leather industry is an important leading industry in Ethiopia, but it has been difficult to solve the environmental pollution problem of leather processing waste liquid. In 2013, China and Ethiopia agreed to jointly build a joint laboratory for leather technology, which helped them comprehensively improve the level of leather research, industrial development and environmental pollution control. When I went to Ethiopian class in 2018, the local people praised China’s help and support in these areas. Coffee industry is another world-famous industry in Ethiopia. In order to solve the problem that the coffee industry may be affected by severe climate change, in 2019, China provided another satellite for free, and the Ethiopian people have the first satellite in history, so they can get a lot of remote sensing data to deal with climate change.
Then, why is the status of ecological civilization unprecedented, the effectiveness of environmental governance unprecedented, and the global ecological contribution unprecedented? Why can "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" change from concept to reality? This is inseparable from a series of fundamental, pioneering and long-term work carried out by the CPC Central Committee.
We adhere to the concept of system, and the thinking of solving ecological and environmental problems has changed. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we have comprehensively strengthened the Party’s leadership over the construction of ecological civilization, incorporated the construction of ecological civilization into the overall layout of "Five in One", and carried out the construction of ecological civilization in an all-round, all-regional and whole-process way, thus solving the contradiction between the ecological system and the control of fragmentation. For example, 2021 is called the first year of national parks, and China officially established the first batch of national parks such as Sanjiangyuan, Giant Panda, Northeast Tiger and Leopard. Many people think that it is not wrong to protect the lovely giant panda, Northeast Tiger and Snow Leopard, but from a global perspective, it is necessary to protect the national representative ecosystem and solve the problems of overlapping functions and multi-head management brought about by different levels and departments.
We insist on institutional innovation, and the institutional system is more perfect and more effective. Most of the outstanding problems in China’s ecological environment protection are related to imperfect system, lax system, lax rule of law, inadequate implementation and ineffective punishment. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we have accelerated the reform of the ecological civilization system, established an increasingly perfect system of ecological civilization system, written ecological civilization into the Constitution, promulgated the "strictest" environmental protection law and a large number of special regulations and environmental standards, provided a reliable guarantee for the construction of ecological civilization with the strictest system and the strictest rule of law, and paid more attention to ecological environment issues from top to bottom. The central eco-environmental protection inspector is one of the important institutional innovations and has become a "sword" to promote the implementation of eco-environmental responsibility. Many illegal projects have been stopped, the ecological environment has been restored, and a number of green ecological industries have been accelerated. For example, Maanshan City, Anhui Province comprehensively rectified the coastline of the Yangtze River, realizing a beautiful butterfly change from "riverside not seeing the river" to "urban ecological living room"; Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province promotes the high-level protection of Erhai Lake and the high-quality development of the basin through problem rectification.
We insist on co-construction, co-governance and sharing, and let the people take action. Theoretically speaking, the ecological environment belongs to public goods or quasi-public goods, which is related to the common interests of all people. The more individuals participate in governance, the higher the quality of ecological products and services. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we have strengthened the publicity and education of ecological civilization, turned the construction of beautiful China into conscious action of the whole people, prompted people to change from consciousness to will, from complaining to action, and made ecological civilization a mainstream value. In 2021, a group of wild Asian elephants in Yunnan’s journey of "going north and returning south" rushed to the hot search, which triggered global onlookers. This group of elephants crossed more than half of Yunnan, which lasted more than 110 days and circuitously traveled about 1300 kilometers. On the way, they also gave birth to a lovely baby elephant. In the long journey, their strength has interpreted what is called "group pets", and people from all over the world have tried their best to provide meticulous care. This group of uninvited "guests" ate a lot of cash crops such as corn, litchi and mango from farmers all the way, but many villagers along the way expressed their understanding and hoped that the elephants could stay a little longer and eat enough before leaving. Elephants will not be driven away if they trample on crops, because insurance companies will compensate farmers. These dribs and drabs make the world sit up and take notice of the effectiveness of wildlife protection and the participation of the whole people in environmental protection in China.
Xun Zi Tian Lun said, "Everything has its own harmony to live, and each has its own cultivation to succeed". The development history of human civilization is a history of the relationship between man and nature, and the change of ecological environment directly affects the rise and fall of civilization. "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" embodies the intellectual achievements of Chinese traditional culture, embodies a new understanding of the relationship between man and nature, the relationship between development and protection, and draws a beautiful blueprint for the harmonious coexistence and modernization of man and nature, making the "green mountains and green hills" of nature truly a "golden hill and silver hill" to enhance people’s sense of security, happiness and acquisition. In March, 2020, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader once again visited Yucun, Anji, and saw green hills, flowing water and clean roads. Every family lived in beautiful buildings and expressed heartfelt sighs. The achievements made by Yucun now prove that the path of green development is correct. If you choose the right path, you must stick to it.
Indeed, as everyone’s income level is getting higher and higher, life is getting better and better, and our need for a beautiful ecological environment will continue to increase, and the construction of ecological civilization is still on the road. Only when we really start from me and walk hand in hand can we share the beautiful life of "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" and play a green symphony with sky blue, green land and shallow fish!
