On August 11, 2024 the Chinese government released the Opinions on Accelerating the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development. (《关于加快经济社会发展全面绿色转型的意见》). According to the Xinhua report, this is the first time at the central government level that a systematic deployment has been made to accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.
The Opinion seems to cover all related aspects. So it is like a blueprint of China’s green transformation in the next 6 years to 2030, or even for longer time. I highlight some key points in the following translation of the document. Your comments and questions are welcome.
Full text of the Opinion:
To promote the greening and low-carbonization of economic and social development is an important symbol of the new concepts and new practices of the Party in governing the country in the new era, a key link to achieving high-quality development, a fundamental strategy to solve the problems of resources, environment and ecology in our country, and an inherent requirement for building a modernization of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. In order to accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, the following opinions are now put forward.
I. General Requirements (总体要求)
We shall adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, comprehensively implement Xi Jinping’s economic thought and Xi Jinping’s ecological civilization thought, and fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concepts. We shall accelerate the building of a new development pattern, unswervingly follow the path of giving priority to ecological protection, being intensive and economical and green and low-carbon for high-quality development. Guided by the work of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, we will synergistically promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth, deepen the reform of the ecological civilization system, improve the green and low-carbon development mechanism, accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, form a spatial pattern, industrial structure, production mode and lifestyle of conserving resources and protecting the environment, comprehensively promote the building of a Beautiful China, and accelerate the modernization of the harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.
In the work, the following should be achieved:
- Adhere to comprehensive transformation. Firmly establish the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, integrate the requirements of green transformation into the overall situation of economic and social development, and promote green transformation in all aspects, in all fields and in all regions to build a community of life for humanity and nature.
- Adhere to collaborative transformation. Fully consider the development reality of different regions and different industries, adhere to the combination of overall promotion and key breakthroughs, scientifically set the timetable, roadmap and construction drawing of green transformation, and encourage the regions and industries with conditions to explore first.
- Adhere to innovative transformation. Strengthen the scientific and technological innovation, policy and institutional innovation and business model innovation that support green transformation, promote the green and low-carbon scientific and technological revolution, develop new productivity in accordance with local conditions, and improve the ecological civilization institutional system to provide stronger innovation impetus and institutional guarantee for green transformation.
- Adhere to safe transformation. Coordinate and handle the relationships between development and emission reduction, the whole and the part, the current and the long-term, the government and the market, properly prevent and resolve the internal and external risk challenges faced by green transformation, and effectively guarantee the security of food and energy, and the security of industrial and supply chains, and better guarantee the production and life of the people.
The main goals are: By 2030, positive progress will have been made in the green transformation of key fields, the green production mode and lifestyle will have basically taken shape, the synergy capacity of pollution reduction and carbon reduction will be significantly enhanced, the efficiency of the main resource utilization will be further improved, the policy and standard system supporting green development will be more improved, and remarkable results will have been achieved in the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. By 2035, the economic system of green, low-carbon and circular development will be basically established, the green production mode and lifestyle will be widely formed, remarkable progress will have been made in the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, the main resource utilization efficiency will reach the international advanced level, economic and social development will have fully entered the green and low-carbon track, carbon emissions will have steadily decreased after peaking, and the goal of a Beautiful China will have been basically achieved.
II. Building a Spatial Pattern of Green, Low-Carbon and High-Quality Development (构建绿色低碳高质量发展空间格局)
（1）Optimizing the pattern of territorial space development and protection. Improve the unified national territorial space planning system with clear rights and responsibilities, scientific and efficient, and strictly observe the three control lines of cultivated land and permanent basic farmland, ecological protection red line and urban development boundary, and optimize the layout of various spaces. Improve the institutional system of the main functional zones, promote the comprehensive layout of the main functional zones, refine the division of the main functional zones, and improve the differentiated policies. Accelerate the building of a system of nature reserves with national parks as the main body, nature reserves as the basis and various nature parks as supplements. Strengthen the zoning control of the ecological environment. Improve the marine resources development and protection system, systematically plan the marine development and utilization, and promote the coordinated and sustainable development of land and sea.
(2) Building green development highlands. Strengthen regional green development cooperation, promote coordinated development and collaborative transformation as a whole, and build growth poles and power sources for green, low-carbon and high-quality development. Promote the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, improve the collaborative protection mechanism of the ecological environment, and support Xiong’an New Area to be built into a model of green development city. Continuously promote the joint protection of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and explore new paths of giving priority to ecological protection and green development. Deepen the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and build a world-class green and low-carbon industrial cluster. Promote the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Build a pilot zone for a Beautiful China. Continuously increase support for the green transformation of resource-based regions and old revolutionary base areas, and cultivate and develop green and low-carbon industries.
III. Accelerating the Green and Low-Carbon Transformation of the Industrial Structure (加快产业结构绿色低碳转型)
(3) Promoting the green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Vigorously promote the green and low-carbon transformation of industries such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, chemicals, building materials, paper making and printing and dyeing, popularize energy-saving, low-carbon and clean production technical equipment, and promote the upgrading of technological processes. Optimize the production capacity scale and layout, continuously update the binding standards such as land, environment, energy efficiency, water efficiency and carbon emissions, lead the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries with national standards, and establish and improve the production capacity exit mechanism. Reasonably raise the access threshold of resources and environment for new construction, reconstruction and expansion projects, and resolutely curb the blind launch of high energy-consuming, high-emission and low-level projects.
(4) Vigorously developing green and low-carbon industries. Accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries, build a green manufacturing system and service system, and continuously increase the proportion of green and low-carbon industries in the total economic volume. Accelerate the cultivation of competitive green and low-carbon enterprises, and build a number of leading enterprises and specialized, refined, special and new small and medium-sized enterprises. Vigorously promote models such as energy management contracting, water-saving management contracting and third-party governance of environmental pollution and the environmental trusteeship service oriented by environmental governance effects. Promote the high-quality development of the cultural industry and promote the in-depth integrated development of culture and tourism. Actively encourage the accelerated development of new industries, new forms of business and new business models oriented by green and low-carbon. By 2030, the scale of energy conservation and environmental protection industry will reach about 15 trillion yuan.
(5) Accelerating the coordinated transformation and development of digitalization and greening. Promote the deep integration of industrial digitalization, intelligence and greening, deepen the application of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and industrial Internet in the fields of power system, industrial and agricultural production, transportation, building construction and operation, and realize the enabling of digital technology for green transformation. Promote all kinds of users to “go to the cloud, use data and endow with intelligence”, support enterprises to use digital intelligence technology and green technology to transform and upgrade traditional industries. Promote the construction of green and low-carbon digital infrastructure, promote the energy conservation, carbon reduction and transformation of existing facilities, and gradually phase out the “old, small and scattered” facilities. Guide digital technology enterprises to develop in a green and low-carbon way and help upstream and downstream enterprises to improve carbon reduction capacity. Explore the establishment of an efficient monitoring, active early warning, scientific analysis and intelligent decision-making system for environmental pollution and meteorological disasters. Promote the construction of 3D real scene China and the enabling application of spatiotemporal information.
IV. Steadily Promoting the Green and Low-Carbon Transformation of Energy (稳妥推进能源绿色低碳转型)
(6) Strengthening the clean and efficient utilization of fossil energy. Strengthen the construction of the energy production, supply, storage and marketing system, adhere to the principle of building new ones before dismantling old ones, promote the safe, reliable and orderly substitution of non-fossil energy for fossil energy, continuously optimize the energy structure, and accelerate the planning and construction of a new energy system. Resolutely control fossil energy consumption, deeply promote the clean and efficient utilization of coal, strictly and reasonably control the growth of coal consumption during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, and gradually reduce it in the next five years. On the premise of ensuring the safe supply of energy, the total coal consumption control will continue to be implemented in key regions, and the substitution of bulk coal will be actively and orderly promoted. Accelerate the “three transformations linkage” of energy conservation, carbon reduction and flexibility transformation and heating transformation of in-service coal-fired power generating units, reasonably plan and build the regulatory and supporting coal power necessary to ensure the safety of the power system. Intensify the exploration, development and production increase of oil and gas resources, and accelerate the integrated development of oil and gas exploration and development and new energy. Promote the construction of carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage projects.
(7) Vigorously developing non-fossil energy. Accelerate the construction of clean energy bases such as wind power and photovoltaic in the northwest, hydropower in the southwest, offshore wind power and coastal nuclear power, actively develop distributed photovoltaic and decentralized wind power, develop new energy sources such as biomass energy, geothermal energy and ocean energy in accordance with local conditions, and promote the whole-chain development of hydrogen energy in “production – storage – transportation – use”. Coordinate hydropower development and ecological protection and promote the integrated development of hydropower, wind power and photovoltaic. Actively and safely develop nuclear power in an orderly manner, and maintain a reasonable layout and a stable construction rhythm. By 2030, the consumption proportion of non-fossil energy will increase to about 25%.
(8) Accelerating the building of a new power system. Strengthen the connection and coordination of clean energy bases, regulatory resources and power transmission channels in terms of scale capacity, spatial layout and construction rhythm, encourage the layout of natural gas peak shaving power stations in areas where gas sources can be implemented and gas prices can be borne, scientifically layout pumped storage, new energy storage and solar thermal power generation, and improve the safe operation and comprehensive regulation capacity of the power system. Build a smart grid, accelerate the construction of microgrids, virtual power plants and source-grid-load-storage integrated projects. Strengthen the demand side management of power. Deepen the reform of the power system and further improve the institutional mechanism that adapts to the new power system. By 2030, the installed capacity of pumped storage will exceed 120 million kilowatts.
V. Promoting the Green Transformation of Transportation (推进交通运输绿色转型)
(9) Optimizing the transportation structure. Build a green and efficient transportation system, improve the national railway, highway and waterway networks, promote the rational division of labor and effective connection of different transportation modes, and reduce the no-load rate and unreasonable passenger and freight turnover volume. Vigorously promote the development of “single bill system” and “single box system” of multimodal transport, accelerate the construction of special freight railways and high-grade inland waterway networks, promote the construction of railway special lines in major ports, large industrial and mining enterprises and logistics parks, increase the proportion of green collection and distribution, and continuously increase the proportion of railway and waterway transportation of bulk goods. Optimize the flight routes of civil aviation, and improve the electrification and intelligentization level of airport operation.
(10) Building green transportation infrastructure. Improve the greening and intelligentization level of newly-built stations, airports, docks and expressway facilities, promote the energy conservation, carbon reduction and transformation and upgrading of existing transportation infrastructure, build a number of low-carbon (near-zero carbon) stations, airports, docks and expressway service areas, and develop photovoltaic along expressways according to local conditions. Improve the infrastructure network of charging (battery swapping) stations, hydrogenation (alcohol) stations and shore power, and accelerate the construction of urban intelligent transportation management systems. Improve the urban-rural logistics distribution system and promote the green and intelligent transformation of distribution methods. Thoroughly implement the strategy of giving priority to the development of urban public transportation and improve the service level of public transportation. Strengthen the construction of urban slow-traffic systems such as sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
(11) Promoting low-carbon transportation tools. Vigorously promote new energy vehicles and promote the electrification replacement of urban public service vehicles. Promote ships, aircraft, non-road mobile machinery and the like to adopt clean power, accelerate the elimination of old transportation tools, promote zero-emission freight transportation, strengthen the research and application of sustainable aviation fuels, and encourage the research and production and application of net-zero emission marine fuels. By 2030, the carbon emission intensity per unit conversion turnover of operating transportation vehicles will decrease by about 9.5% compared with that in 2020. By 2035, new energy vehicles will become the mainstream of new sales vehicles.
VI. Promoting the Green Transformation of Urban and Rural Construction and Development (推进城乡建设发展绿色转型)
(12) Implementing the green planning and construction methods. Fully implement the requirements of green transformation in all links of urban and rural planning, construction and governance. Advocate the concept of green and low-carbon planning and design, strictly observe the urban development boundary, control the excessive rapid growth of new construction land, protect and restore ecological spaces such as green spaces, waters and wetlands, and reasonably plan the concentrated areas of noise-sensitive buildings. Promote the construction of climate-adaptive cities and enhance the climate resilience of urban and rural areas. Promote green construction methods, give priority to the use of green building materials, and deepen the comprehensive treatment of dust pollution.
(13) Vigorously developing green and low-carbon buildings. Establish a building energy efficiency rating system. Increase the proportion of star-rated green buildings in new buildings and promote the large-scale development of ultra-low energy consumption buildings. Accelerate the energy conservation, water saving and carbon reduction transformation of existing buildings and municipal infrastructure, and popularize advanced and efficient lighting, air conditioners, elevators and other equipment. Optimize the energy structure of buildings, promote the integrated construction of building photovoltaic, promote the application of “photovoltaic-storage-direct-current-flexibility” technology, and develop clean and low-carbon heating.
(14) Promoting the green development of agriculture and rural areas. Implement actions of emission reduction and carbon sequestration in agriculture and rural areas, optimize the planting and breeding structure, popularize excellent crop and livestock and poultry varieties and green and efficient planting and breeding technologies, and promote the reduction of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural inputs to increase efficiency. Establish and improve the collection, utilization and treatment system of agricultural wastes such as straw, agricultural film, pesticide packaging waste and livestock and poultry manure, and strengthen the control of straw burning. Deepen the improvement of rural living environment, and cultivate new industries and new forms of business of green development in rural areas. Develop renewable energy sources according to local conditions and orderly promote clean heating in rural areas.
VII. Implementing the Strategy of Comprehensive Conservation (实施全面节约战略)
（15）Vigorously promote energy conservation, carbon reduction and efficiency enhancement. Carry out energy conservation work at a high level and with high quality, promote energy conservation and carbon reduction transformation in key industries, and accelerate the renewal and upgrading of equipment and products. Build a carbon emission statistics and accounting system, strengthen energy conservation review of fixed asset investment projects, explore the implementation of project carbon emission assessment, and strictly control energy consumption and carbon emissions of new projects. Promote enterprises to establish and improve energy conservation and carbon reduction management mechanisms, promote the “diagnosis + transformation” model of energy conservation and carbon reduction, and strengthen energy conservation supervision.
(16) Strengthen the efficient use of resources through conservation and intensification. Improve the total resource management and comprehensive conservation system, and strengthen the whole-process management and full-chain conservation of various resources such as water, grain, land and minerals. Implement the rigid restraint system for water resources, develop water-saving industries, strengthen the utilization of unconventional water sources, and build a water-saving society. Implement the Anti-Food Waste Law, improve the long-term mechanism for grain and food conservation, and carry out grain conservation actions. Implement the strictest farmland protection system and the land conservation and intensive utilization system, promote land-saving technologies and models, optimize the development and utilization of existing land, and improve the utilization efficiency of sea area space. Strengthen the exploration, protection and rational development of mineral resources, improve mining efficiency, and strengthen the utilization of low-grade resources.
(17) Vigorously develop the circular economy. Deepen the action of promoting carbon reduction through the circular economy, promote the production model of resource circulation, vigorously develop the resource recycling industry, promote the high-quality development of the remanufacturing industry, improve the quality of recycled materials and products, and expand the scale of substitution for primary resources. Promote household waste sorting and improve the resource utilization rate. Improve the waste recycling system, strengthen waste classification disposal and recycling capabilities, and improve the large-scale, standardized and refined level of recycling. By 2030, the annual utilization of bulk solid waste will reach about 4.5 billion tons, and the main resource output rate will increase by about 45% compared with 2020.
VIII. Promote the Green Transformation of Consumption Patterns (推动消费模式绿色转型)
(18) Promote green lifestyles. Vigorously advocate simple, moderate, green, low-carbon, civilized and healthy life concepts and consumption patterns, integrate green concepts and conservation requirements into social norms such as citizens’ conventions, village regulations, student codes and group charters, and enhance the awareness of conservation, environmental protection and ecology among all people. Carry out green and low-carbon actions for all people, guide the public to save water and electricity, oppose extravagance and waste, promote the “Clear Your Plate Campaign”, resist excessive packaging, reduce the use of disposable products, guide the public to give priority to green travel methods such as public transportation, walking and cycling, widely carry out patriotic health campaigns, and promote the solution of environmental problems around the masses such as noise, cooking fumes and foul odors, and form a social atmosphere that respects ecological civilization.
（19）Increase the supply of green products. Guide enterprises to carry out green design, select green materials, implement green manufacturing, adopt green packaging, carry out green transportation and recycle resources to reduce energy and resource consumption and ecological and environmental impacts throughout the product life cycle. Establish and improve standards and norms for green product design, procurement and manufacturing, strengthen the construction of green product certification and labeling systems, improve energy efficiency and water efficiency labeling systems, and establish product carbon footprint management systems and product carbon labeling certification systems. Strengthen the management of green product and service certifications, improve the supervision mechanism of certification institutions, and cultivate green certification institutions with international influence.
(20) Actively expand green consumption. Improve the green consumption incentive mechanism. Optimize the government’s green procurement policy, expand the scope and scale of green product procurement, and incorporate carbon footprint requirements into government procurement in due course. Guide enterprises to implement the green procurement guidelines, encourage qualified enterprises to establish green supply chains, and drive the coordinated transformation of upstream and downstream enterprises. Support qualified regions to encourage enterprises to adopt methods such as “trade-in” and guide consumers to purchase green products by distributing consumer vouchers and green points. Carry out activities to promote new energy vehicles and green smart home appliances, water-saving appliances, energy-saving stoves and green building materials in rural areas, and strengthen the construction of supporting facilities and after-sales service guarantees. Encourage users to expand green energy consumption.
IX. Give Full Play to the Supporting Role of Scientific and Technological Innovation (发挥科技创新支撑作用)
(21) Strengthen applied basic research. Establish a prediction, discovery, assessment and early warning mechanism for frontier leading technologies and disruptive technologies, moderately advance the layout of major national scientific research infrastructure, form a group of national key laboratories and national innovation platforms, implement a number of major national frontier science and technology projects, focus on strengthening applied basic research in the field of green and low-carbon, and stimulate disruptive technological innovation. Innovate the talent training model, optimize the disciplinary and professional settings of universities, and consolidate the intellectual foundation for green transformation.
（22）Accelerate the research and development of key technologies. Promote self-reliance and self-improvement of green and low-carbon science and technology, take green transformation-related technologies as an important support direction of relevant key special projects of the national key research and development plan, focus on energy green and low-carbon transformation, low-carbon and zero-carbon process reengineering, new power systems, carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage, resource conservation and intensive and circular utilization, and new pollutant control, and comprehensively strengthen the research on key core technologies. Strengthen the dominant position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, support leading enterprises to lead the formation of research consortia for key core technologies, increase the funding for green and low-carbon technology research and development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and encourage enterprises of all ownerships to participate in relevant national science and technology plans.
(23) Carry out innovation demonstration and promotion. Give full play to the key leading role of innovation in green transformation. Carry out multi-level pilots and promote the coordinated synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in key areas such as industry, energy, transportation, urban and rural construction and agriculture. Implement demonstration projects of green and low-carbon advanced technologies, accelerate the demonstration, application and promotion of advanced and applicable technologies. Improve the evaluation and trading system of green and low-carbon technologies and scientific and technological innovation service platforms, explore business models conducive to the development of new green and low-carbon industries and new business forms, strengthen the creation, protection and application of intellectual property rights of green and low-carbon technologies, and stimulate the innovation vitality of the whole society.
X. Improve the Policy System for Green Transformation (完善绿色转型政策体系)
(24) Improve fiscal and tax policies for green transformation. Actively build a fiscal and tax policy system conducive to promoting green and low-carbon development and efficient resource utilization, and support work in areas such as the construction of a new energy system, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, green and low-carbon scientific and technological innovation, energy and resource conservation and intensive utilization, and the promotion of green and low-carbon lifestyles. Implement tax preferences for environmental protection, energy conservation and water conservation, comprehensive utilization of resources, new energy and clean energy vehicles and ships. Improve the green tax system, fully implement the reform of water resource fees to taxes, improve the collection system of environmental protection tax, and study and support tax policies related to carbon emission reduction.
（25）Enrich financial tools for green transformation. Extend the implementation period of carbon emission reduction support tools until the end of 2027. Research and formulate transition finance standards to provide reasonable and necessary financial support for the green and low-carbon transformation of traditional industries. Encourage banks to guide the green allocation of credit resources on the basis of reasonable risk assessment. Where conditions permit, local governments can support the development of green credit through government financing guarantee institutions. Encourage local governments to reduce the financing costs of green bonds through various methods. Actively develop financial tools such as green equity financing, green financial leasing and green trust, and orderly promote the innovation of carbon finance products and derivatives. Develop green insurance and explore the establishment of a differentiated insurance rate mechanism.
（26）Optimize the investment mechanism for green transformation. Innovate and optimize the investment mechanism and encourage all kinds of capital to increase the investment proportion in the field of green and low-carbon. Central budget investment actively supports key projects in areas such as the demonstration of green and low-carbon advanced technologies, energy conservation and carbon reduction in key industries, efficient resource recycling and environmental infrastructure construction. Guide and standardize the participation of social capital in the investment, construction and operation of green and low-carbon projects, and encourage social capital to establish green and low-carbon industrial investment funds in a market-oriented manner. Support qualified new energy, ecological environmental protection and other green transformation-related projects to issue real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the field of infrastructure.
(27) Improve the price policy for green transformation. Deepen the reform of electricity prices, improve the price mechanism that encourages flexible power sources to participate in system regulation, implement the capacity electricity price mechanism for coal-fired power, study and establish a sound price formation mechanism for new energy storage, improve the stepped electricity price system and time-of-use electricity price policy, and improve the stepped electricity price system for energy-intensive industries. Improve the stepped water price for residents, the progressive surcharge policy for non-resident water use and special water use beyond the quota, and promote the comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices. Support local governments to improve the charging model, promote the reform of the charging method for domestic waste treatment, and establish an incentive mechanism for urban domestic waste sorting and reduction.
（28）Improve the market-oriented mechanism for green transformation. Improve the market-oriented allocation system of resource and environmental factors, improve the trading system norms and supporting systems such as registration, transfer, transfer and mortgage, and explore financing tools based on resource and environmental rights and interests. Improve the horizontal ecological protection compensation mechanism and the value realization mechanism of ecological products. Promote the construction of the national carbon emission trading market and the voluntary emission reduction trading market of greenhouse gases, improve the laws and regulations, and expand the trading industry scope in a timely and orderly manner. Improve the trading system of green electricity certificates, and strengthen the policy synergy of market-oriented mechanisms such as green electricity, green certificates and carbon trading.
(29) Build a green development standard system. Establish a standard system for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, promote the formulation and revision of basic general standards and standards related to carbon emission reduction and carbon removal, and formulate standards for enterprise carbon emissions and product carbon footprint accounting, reporting and verification. Accelerate the update and upgrade of energy conservation standards, improve the energy consumption limit requirements of key products, and expand the coverage of energy consumption limit standards. Improve the standard system for renewable energy and the standard system for industrial green and low-carbon, and establish and improve standards for hydrogen energy “production, storage, transportation and use”.
XI. Strengthen International Cooperation on Green Transformation (加强绿色转型国际合作)
(30) Participate in and lead the global green transformation process. Adhering to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, actively participate in the formulation of international rules in the fields of climate change response, marine pollution control, biodiversity protection and plastic pollution control, and promote the construction of a fair, reasonable, cooperative and win-win global environmental and climate governance system. Promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, strengthen South-South cooperation and cooperation with neighboring countries, and provide support to developing countries within our capacity.
(31) Strengthen policy exchanges and practical cooperation. Expand multilateral and bilateral dialogue and cooperation channels, strengthen the construction of multilateral cooperation platforms in the field of green development, vigorously publicize the effectiveness of China’s green transformation, and actively learn from international experience. Strengthen green investment and trade cooperation, promote the construction of the “Green Silk Road“, deepen practical cooperation with relevant countries, improve the environmental sustainability of overseas projects, and encourage the import and export of green and low-carbon products. Strengthen green technology cooperation, encourage universities and research institutions to carry out academic exchanges with foreign parties, and actively participate in international major science projects. Strengthen international cooperation on green standards and conformity assessment, participate in the formulation and revision of relevant international standards, and promote convergence and mutual recognition of rules such as carbon footprint with major trading partners.
XII. Organization and Implementation (组织实施)
(32) Adhere to and strengthen the overall leadership of the Party. Under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and implement the Party’s leadership throughout the entire process and all aspects of the work. All regions and departments should clarify the key tasks of green transformation in their regions and departments, and implement this opinion in light of actual conditions. All relevant units, people’s organizations and social organizations should actively promote the green transformation work in their respective fields. The National Development and Reform Commission should strengthen overall coordination, work with relevant departments to establish a new mechanism for the comprehensive transformation from dual control of energy consumption to dual control of carbon emissions, formulate and implement a comprehensive evaluation and assessment system for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, conduct scientific assessment, and strengthen the application of assessment results. In case of important situations, report to the Party Central Committee and the State Council in accordance with procedures in a timely manner.
(33) Strengthen legal guarantees. All relevant units should accelerate the formulation and revision of laws and regulations such as the Code of Ecological Environment, Energy Law, Energy Conservation Law, Electric Power Law, Coal Law, Renewable Energy Law and Circular Economy Promotion Law, and study and formulate special laws on climate change response and carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Implement the green principle of the Civil Code and guide civil subjects to save energy and resources and protect the ecological environment. Improve the connection mechanism between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice. Lawfully carry out litigation for compensation for ecological environment damage, public interest litigation in the fields of ecological environment and resource protection, and improve the compensation and restoration mechanism for ecological environment damage.
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Source: China Ecological Civilization Newsletter, August 11, 2024. https://xueyingyingxue.substack.com/p/breaking-china-releases-comprehensive