Brazil 247:

When listening to President Xi Jinping's report at the opening session of the 20th Congress, I was particularly impressed by the following remark: (the principle that) lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets must be firmly established and development must be planned considering the harmonious co-existence between man and nature. I come from Latin America, a region that enjoys lucid waters and lush mountains from the Andes region to the Amazon rain forest. What are China's practices in promoting green development that other countries can learn from? Thank you. 

Zhai Qing:

Thank you for your question. That is an excellent question. Respecting, adapting to, and protecting nature is essential for building China into a modern socialist country in all respects. In the report to the 20th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping made promoting harmony between humanity and nature one of the essential requirements of Chinese modernization and emphasized that we must uphold and act on the principle that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and we must maintain harmony between humanity and nature when planning our development.

Promoting green and low-carbon development is fundamental for achieving harmony between humanity and nature. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, we have fully applied the new development philosophy and firmly promoted green and low-carbon development and green transition in all respects of economic and social development in the process of controlling and preventing pollution and advancing the Beautiful China Initiative. We have mainly taken the following measures.

First, we have made prevention at the source the priority of our work. We have adopted a region-specific approach to environmental management. We have accelerated the application of the outcomes produced by enforcing red lines for ecological conservation, setting the bottom line for environmental quality, imposing a upper limit line on resource utilization, and implementing a list for eco-environmental permits, providing strong support for optimizing the layout of spatial development. We have implemented environmental impact assessments and enforced strict environmental standards for project approval, resolutely stopping the blind development of energy-intensive projects with high emissions and backward production capacity. We have deepened supply-side structural reform and industrial restructuring and shut down outdated production facilities, significantly enhancing the green and low-carbon development of the economy.

Second, we have promoted concerted efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions. We have issued and implemented the plan for coordinating the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions. Efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions have been planned and carried out in tandem, so has the performance assessment. In this way, we have promoted the improvement and adjustment of industry structure, energy mix, transportation and land use. We have enabled the implementation of measures and requirements such as enforcing upgrades in industrial enterprises to achieve compliance with higher standards, eliminating coal-fired boilers that do not meet standards and enhancing emission standards for motor vehicles. We have stepped up efforts to promote the research, development and application of green and low-carbon technology and boost the development of energy-saving and environmental protection industries. In 2021, the revenue of the national environmental protection industry reached 2.18 trillion yuan, up by 11.8% year on year.

Third, we have taken active steps to build pacesetters of green development. With a continued focus on ecological conservation and green development, we have supported the effective implementation of major national strategies for promoting regional development, such as the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin. Work has been carried forward to build ecological civilization demonstration areas. We have nominated five batches of 362 national model cities and counties of developing ecological civilization. We have established 136 innovation bases for practicing the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, guiding local governments to actively explore a new path for high-quality development that prioritizes eco-environmental protection and green development. 

Fourth, we have made innovations in green and low-carbon development policies. The China Carbon Emission Trade Exchange has started online trading, and in the first compliance cycle period, 2,162 key emission entities in the power generation sector were included, the total market trading volume reached 179 million tonnes, and total turnover was 7.661 billion yuan. We have carried out our work concerning environmental protection tax in an orderly manner and taken concrete actions to support enterprises in energy-saving transformation and the integrated utilization of resources. Since 2018, there has been a tax cut of over 10 billion yuan for enterprises with emissions lower than the standards on the emission of pollutants. We have made significant efforts to develop green finance and promoted innovation in the eco-environmental-oriented development model. So far, we have guided 118 relevant projects to be included in the reserve of projects and made recommendations to some financial institutions. These projects involve a total investment of over 670 billion yuan, with financing needs of 452 billion yuan. By the end of September, they had received credit facilities of 132.99 billion yuan from financial institutions and been granted 30.24 billion yuan in loans.

Next, we will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, carry out coordinated industrial restructuring, pollution control, ecological conservation, and climate response, promote concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development, and pursue economic growth, and strive to achieve the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. Thank you.