Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Party pointed out: "Promoting green and low-carbon economic and social development is the key link to achieve high-quality development." In July, 2023, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader delivered an important speech at the National Conference on Ecological Environmental Protection, which clarified five major relationships that need to be correctly handled in the new journey and put forward higher requirements for the construction of ecological civilization. The first one is to correctly handle the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection. The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed that "we should plan development from the height of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, constantly shape new kinetic energy and advantages of development through high-level environmental protection, and strive to build a green and low-carbon circular economy system, effectively reduce the resource and environmental costs of development, and continuously enhance the potential and stamina of development". On the new journey, we must adhere to the guidance of the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought, adhere to the system concept, strengthen overall planning, grasp the main contradictions, do a good job in implementation, and jointly promote high-quality economic development and high-level ecological environment protection.
1. Plan the road of modernization from the height of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
Modernization is the general trend of development in today’s world, and it is also the development goal pursued by all countries and nations. How to deal with the relationship between man and nature is an inevitable problem to realize modernization. From the course of modernization in western countries, modernization is accompanied by industrial civilization, which has paid a huge ecological and environmental cost while realizing the rapid development of productive forces. In the capitalist modernization mode dominated by capital logic, nature is the conquered object. In order to reduce production costs and gain more profits, capitalists destroy the natural environment and plunder natural resources, and transfer polluting industries to developing countries. The relationship between man and nature tends to be tense and contradictions are constantly intensifying, and various environmental pollution problems are becoming increasingly serious.
In the great journey of uniting and leading the people of China to realize modernization, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has always adhered to the guidance of Marxism and scientifically handled the relationship between man and nature. His ecological concept has become increasingly mature with the gradual deepening of socialist modernization. For example, at the beginning of the founding of New China, Comrade Mao Zedong called for "greening the motherland", which was enshrined in the Constitution in 1978, and environmental protection was established as a basic national policy in 1983, which was put forward by the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. … Constantly explore a new path of civilization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously.
Entering the new era, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has profoundly grasped the important position and strategic significance of ecological civilization construction in the cause of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, systematically answered the major theoretical and practical questions of why, what and how to build ecological civilization, creatively put forward a series of new ideas, new ideas and new strategies, and formed the Supreme Leader’s ecological civilization thought. Standing on the strategic height of human destiny and the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, the Supreme Leader’s ecological civilization thought deeply reflected on the western modernization model, and put forward that the modernization of our construction is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, emphasizing the persistence of respecting nature, adapting to nature, protecting nature, keeping the natural ecological security boundary, and striving to achieve a win-win situation of ecologicalization and modernization.
The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that "China’s socialist modernization has many important characteristics, one of which is that China’s modernization is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and it pays attention to promoting the construction of material civilization and ecological civilization simultaneously". This shows that the modernization we are trying to achieve is aimed at realizing the dialectical unity and complementary modernization of ecological environment protection and economic development, which contains the connotation of ecological civilization. The Communist Party of China (CPC)’s ecological view of harmonious coexistence between man and nature transcends the western anthropocentrism, is a concrete expression and vivid embodiment of the new form of human civilization in the ecological field, profoundly grasps the dialectics between the uniqueness of the earth’s ecological environment and the limitation of carrying capacity, the dependence of human society on the ecological environment and the seriousness of unreasonable human behavior, and effectively breaks the myth of "modernization = westernization" from the dimension of ecological civilization. In practice, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has incorporated the construction of ecological civilization into the overall layout of "Five in One", made "upholding the harmonious coexistence between man and nature" one of the basic strategies for upholding and developing Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, incorporated "beautiful China" into the goal of building a powerful socialist country with modernization, incorporated "green" into the new development concept, and incorporated "pollution prevention" into the three major battles.By writing "ecological civilization" into the Constitution, the layout of harmonious coexistence between man and nature is more perfect, more systematic and more mature. Unswervingly following the civilized development path of production development, affluent life and good ecology, and jointly promoting people’s prosperity, country’s prosperity and China’s beauty are the "big country" that must be kept in mind, which is an important guarantee for achieving high-quality development.
2. Grasp the dialectical unity between high-quality development and high-level protection.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "We want green mountains and green hills as well as Jinshan Yinshan. I would rather have green mountains and green hills than Jinshan Yinshan, and Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. " "High-quality development and high-level protection complement each other. High-level protection is an important support for high-quality development, and high-quality development with ecological priority, green and low carbon can only be achieved by high-level protection. In the whole process of Chinese modernization, we must grasp the dialectical unity relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection. " These important expositions point out that high-quality economic development and high-level protection of ecological environment are the objective needs of the development of human society. They are not either one or the other, but can coexist harmoniously and go hand in hand.
To accurately understand the dialectical unity relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, we must adhere to Marxist materialist dialectics, correctly analyze contradictions, and grasp unity in opposition and opposition in unity. Development is the top priority for governing and rejuvenating the country, and the last word for solving all problems in China. However, development must be based on the sustainability of natural resources, and nature itself has certain ecological carrying capacity and ecological capacity problems, so we must persist in protecting in development and developing in protection. High-quality development cannot be at the expense of the ecological environment, and achieving high-level protection requires the strong backing of high-quality development.
Adhering to the concept of system is an important starting point for coordinating development and protection. Protecting the ecological environment means protecting the productive forces, and improving the ecological environment means developing the productive forces, which has become the general consensus and action guide of the whole party and society. At present, China’s ecological civilization construction is still in a critical period of pressure superposition and heavy burden. It has entered a critical period of providing more high-quality ecological products to meet the people’s growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment, and it has also reached a window period when it has the conditions and ability to solve outstanding problems in the ecological environment. On the whole, the structural, root-cause and trend pressure of ecological environment protection has not been fundamentally alleviated, the foundation of stable and good ecological environment construction is still not solid, and the turning point of ecological environment quality from quantitative change to qualitative change has not yet arrived. Compared with the people’s expectations for a better life and the goal of building a beautiful China, the ecological environment quality is still far behind the requirements of promoting green, low-carbon and high-quality development, promoting Chinese modernization and building a socialist modernization power in an all-round way. We must run the system concept through the whole process of economic and social development and ecological environmental protection, correctly handle a series of relationships such as development and protection, overall and local, current and long-term, and further promote high-quality development and high-level protection.
3. Promote high-quality economic development and high-level protection of ecological environment with green development.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "Green mountains and green hills and Jinshan Yinshan are by no means antagonistic. The key lies in people and ideas." Eco-environmental problems are essentially problems of development mode and lifestyle, economic structure and consumption pattern. Correctly handling the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, resolutely abandoning the development model that damages or even destroys the ecological environment, and resolutely abandoning the wrong practice of sacrificing the ecological environment for temporary and local economic development lies in accelerating the green transformation of development mode.
Practice the concept of green development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s ecological environmental protection has been comprehensively strengthened, with unprecedented determination, strength and effectiveness. While China’s economic aggregate continues to grow, it continues to significantly reduce pollutant emissions, supporting an average annual economic growth of more than 6% with an average annual growth rate of 3% in energy consumption, and the people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security in ecological civilization construction is constantly increasing. Facing the future, we should integrate the concept of green development into all links in the whole chain of industry, agriculture and service industry, actively build a green and low-carbon recycling production system, focus on building a market-oriented green technology innovation system and institutional arrangements, aim at energy saving, emission reduction and efficiency improvement, comprehensively improve the green level of traditional industries, realize the benign transformation of ecological value and empower high-quality development.
Strengthen the determination of green development. Green transformation is an all-round and revolutionary change in production mode, lifestyle, way of thinking and values. The high-quality development mode of ecological priority, green and low carbon is the fundamental policy and radical measure to solve the ecological and environmental problems from the source. It is necessary to strengthen the determination of green development, form a policy system, a technical system, a standard system and a market system to promote the overall green transformation of the economy and society, comprehensively use administrative, legal and economic means, improve the system, mechanism and system of ecological civilization construction, form a good governance system and governance pattern for the whole society to jointly promote the ecological environment, and embark on a road of green transformation with China characteristics. Promote all-round green and low-carbon economic and social development, accelerate the formation of green production methods and lifestyles, achieve high-level protection in high-quality development, and promote high-quality development in high-level protection.
Advocate green consumption mode. The important driving force to achieve high-quality economic development and high-level protection and win-win of ecological environment is to vigorously advocate green consumption. Consumption is an important booster of economic growth. It is necessary to further guide the society to identify with green consumption, constantly improve the certification, acceptance and promotion mechanism of green products, integrate green concepts into the consumption field and chain system, make green consumption methods become the public’s conscious choice, and green low-carbon products become the mainstream of the market; Guide and promote the consumption of green products, expand green consumer groups, fully release the potential and scale advantages of green consumption, and create conditions for promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development; Constantly transform the achievements of ecological civilization construction into high-quality ecological products, meet the people’s growing needs for a better life and a beautiful ecological environment, and enhance people’s livelihood and well-being.
Carry out green international cooperation. At the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader announced eight actions of China to support the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road, the fourth of which was "promoting green development": "China will continue to deepen cooperation in the fields of green infrastructure, green energy and green transportation, and increase its cooperation with ‘ Belt and Road ’ With the support of the International Alliance for Green Development, continue to hold ‘ Belt and Road ’ The Green Innovation Conference will build a dialogue and exchange mechanism for the photovoltaic industry and a green and low-carbon expert network. " Facing the future, it is necessary to strengthen the global overall planning, multi-subject participation and cross-regional coordination of ecological environment governance, so as to build a beautiful China and promote a clean and beautiful world, and provide beneficial theoretical reference and experience demonstration for developing countries to solve ecological environment problems in economic development, and jointly promote high-quality economic development and high-level ecological environment protection.
(Author: Wang Ying, a researcher at Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center, the supreme leader of Beijing, and a researcher at the School Moral Education Research Institute of Capital Normal University)