Building a Beautiful China (Learning and Implementing the Spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China)
Sun Jinlong, Secretary of the Party Group of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment
The "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Proposal") passed at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly proposes to accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development and build a beautiful China.
Fully understand the significant importance of building a beautiful China
Building a beautiful China is an important goal of comprehensively building a socialist modernized country and an important content of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the Chinese Dream. At present, the construction of ecological civilization in China is still in a critical period of pressure accumulation and progress with heavy burdens. We should place the construction of a beautiful China in a prominent position in the construction of a strong country and national rejuvenation, making our motherland bluer in the sky, greener in the mountains, cleaner in the water, and more beautiful in the ecological environment.
（1） Building a beautiful China is the only way to plant the green background of Chinese path to modernization. Chinese path to modernization is the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and green development is the distinctive background of Chinese path to modernization. As a developing country with a population of over 1.4 billion, it is not feasible for China to embark on the path of modernization as a whole, which is centered on capital, materialistic expansion, and pollution first followed by treatment in the West. The construction of a beautiful China is related to the realization of the second centennial goal on schedule and must run through the whole process of Chinese path to modernization. We should consciously plan for development at the height of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, comprehensively promote the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature with the construction of a beautiful China, and make the green background of Chinese path to modernization brighter and more sufficient.
（2） Building a beautiful China is an essential part of achieving high-quality development. High quality development is the universal form of green development, and greening and low-carbon are key links to achieving high-quality development. The task of green and low-carbon transformation in our country is still heavy, and achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is a daunting task. The strategic path for building a beautiful China is to promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth in a coordinated manner, and to promote high-quality development and create a high-quality life through high-level protection. We must accelerate the green transformation of development mode and promote the realization of higher quality, more efficient, more equitable, more sustainable, and safer development.
（3） Building a beautiful China is an inherent requirement to meet the growing needs of the people for a better life. A good ecological environment is the most equitable public good and the most universal welfare for people's livelihoods. With the development of China's economy and society and the improvement of people's living standards, a beautiful ecological environment has become an important part of people's longing for a better life. The beauty of China lies first and foremost in its excellent ecology and beautiful environment. Providing more high-quality ecological products to meet the growing needs of the people for a beautiful ecological environment is an important task in the construction of a beautiful China. We must continuously improve the quality of the ecological environment, so that the people can share the beauty of nature, life, and living in the green mountains and clear waters.
（4） Building a beautiful China is China's contribution to jointly building a clean and beautiful world. Building a beautiful home is a common dream of humanity. Currently, there is a serious deficit in global environmental governance, and the sustainable development process is far from meeting expectations. The construction of a beautiful China is not only an important action for China to promote the resolution of global environmental problems through its own efforts, but also an important reference for other countries to promote ecological environment governance and sustainable development. We must uphold the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, implement global development initiatives, global security initiatives, global civilization initiatives, and global governance initiatives, lead the global environmental governance process with the construction of a beautiful China, and contribute Chinese wisdom and strength to achieving green, low-carbon, and sustainable development.
Significant strides have been made in the construction of a beautiful China in the new era
All regions and departments have resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and have made historic, turning point, and global changes in promoting the construction of ecological civilization from theory to practice. The construction of a beautiful China has taken significant steps forward.
（1） The continuous improvement of the ecological environment provides strong support for high-quality development. Adhere to precise pollution control, scientific pollution control, and law based pollution control, continue to deepen the battle against pollution prevention and control, and significantly improve environmental quality. Compared with 10 years ago, the average concentration of PM2.5 in key cities across the country has decreased by 56%, and the number of heavily polluted days has decreased by 92%, making it the country with the fastest improvement rate in global air quality; The proportion of excellent surface water bodies in China has increased from 64.1% to 90.4%. The water quality of the Yangtze River main stream has remained stable at Class II for five consecutive years and the Yellow River main stream for three consecutive years. Black and odorous water bodies in prefecture level and above cities have been basically eliminated. The soil environmental risks have been effectively controlled, and the rural domestic sewage treatment rate has reached over 45%. The people's sense of gain, happiness, and security in the ecological environment has significantly improved, creating a successful practice for the largest developing country to effectively protect the ecological environment while achieving rapid economic and social development.
（2） The pace of green and low-carbon transformation is accelerating, actively shaping new driving forces for development. Vigorously promote the green and low-carbon transformation of industrial structure, energy structure, and transportation structure, and accelerate the cultivation and development of green productivity. Build the world's largest clean power supply and clean steel production system, with over 96% of coal-fired power units undergoing ultra-low emission transformation, and 950 million tons of crude steel production capacity undergoing full process ultra-low emission transformation or key engineering transformation. We have built the world's largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system, with the installed capacity of renewable energy reaching 56% of the total installed power generation capacity in China by 2024. Since 2012, China has supported an average annual economic growth rate of 6.1% with an average annual energy consumption growth rate of 3.4%, and the cumulative carbon emission intensity has decreased by more than 35%. For 10 consecutive years, the production and sales of new energy vehicles have ranked first in the world. More than 80% of the world's photovoltaic modules and 70% of wind power equipment come from China. The green and low-carbon industry has become a new engine for economic growth and a new driving force for foreign trade development.
（3） The quality of the ecosystem is steadily improving, further consolidating the ecological foundation for long-term development. Deeply promote major projects for the protection and restoration of important ecosystems, and implement major projects for biodiversity conservation. Establish a natural protected area system with national parks as the main body, delineate and strictly abide by ecological protection red lines, and ensure that the area of land ecological protection red lines accounts for more than 30% of the land area. 90% of land ecosystem types and 74% of national key protected wild animal and plant populations are effectively protected. China's forest coverage rate has increased to over 25%, contributing 1/4 of the world's newly added green area, and the "green wealth" of the entire population continues to accumulate. 572 ecological civilization construction demonstration zones and 240 "green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver" practice and innovation bases have been named successively, providing vivid practice and samples for the coordinated promotion of high-quality development and high-level protection.
（4） The reform of the ecological civilization system has achieved remarkable results, continuously enhancing the endogenous driving force of development. Ecological civilization is enshrined in the Party Constitution and Constitution, and more than 30 ecological environment laws and regulations have been formulated and revised. Dozens of reform measures related to ecological civilization have been introduced, and the legal system of ecological environment protection with Chinese characteristics and the institutional system of ecological civilization with the nature of "four beams and eight pillars" have been basically formed. Especially, the central ecological environment protection inspection system has become a major institutional innovation to solidify the political responsibility of ecological civilization construction. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council will issue the "Regulations on Ecological Environment Protection Inspection Work" in April 2025, promoting the continuous development of inspection work in depth. Establish the world's largest carbon emissions trading market and ensure its stable operation, launch the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market, and continuously improve the market mechanism for green and low-carbon development.
（5） The contribution to global environmental governance is demonstrated, fully demonstrating the responsibility of a major country. Actively participating in global environmental and climate negotiations, firmly safeguarding national environmental and development rights and interests. Promote the achievement, signing, entry into force, and implementation of the Paris Agreement, make solemn commitments to peak carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality, declare national independent contributions by 2035, propose for the first time absolute emission reduction targets covering the entire economy, including all greenhouse gases, and take effective measures to address climate change. As the President of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, we promote the milestone achievement of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and launch the Kunming Biodiversity Fund, effectively enhancing global confidence in biodiversity conservation. We advocate the establishment of the "the Belt and Road" International Alliance for Green Development and the big data service platform for ecological and environmental protection, and continue to carry out South South cooperation on climate change. China has become a firm activist and an important contributor to green development in the world.
Significant progress has been made in promoting the construction of a beautiful China
The "Proposal" clearly states that making significant progress in the construction of a beautiful China is one of the main goals of economic and social development during the 15th Five Year Plan period. It proposes that a green production and lifestyle will be basically formed, the carbon peak target will be achieved as scheduled, a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient new energy system will be initially established, the total emissions of major pollutants will continue to decrease, and the stability of ecosystem diversity will continue to improve. The Proposal sets up a special chapter to deploy key tasks and major measures to accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development and build a beautiful China.
（1） Strengthen the comprehensive leadership of the Party in the construction of a beautiful China. Improve the working mechanism of central coordination, provincial overall responsibility, and city and county implementation, implement the "Regulations on the Responsibility System for Ecological Environment Protection of Local Party and Government Leaders (Trial)", and establish a comprehensive, consistent, clear reward and punishment, and interrelated responsibility system. We will deepen the supervision of ecological environment protection, make the construction of a beautiful China a key focus of supervision, continue to play the role of a sharp sword in supervision, and consolidate the "joint responsibility of the Party and the government, and dual responsibility of one position" for ecological environment protection. Establish a sound implementation system and mechanism for promoting the construction of a beautiful China, and coordinate the promotion of the "Beautiful Series" construction actions. Research and develop an evaluation index system and methods for the effectiveness of building a beautiful China, timely transition the evaluation of pollution prevention and control to the evaluation of the effectiveness of building a beautiful China, and promote the implementation and effectiveness of the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee on building a beautiful China.
（2） Continuously advancing pollution prevention and control and optimizing ecosystems. Adhere to environmental protection for the people, comprehensively implement precise and scientific pollution control in accordance with the law, pay more attention to source control, strengthen the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, multi pollutant control, and regional governance, deepen the defense of blue sky, clear water, and clean land, and promote new breakthroughs in pollution prevention and control in key areas, important fields, and key indicators. Accelerate the implementation of the fixed pollution source supervision system with the pollutant discharge permit system as the core, and achieve the "one certificate" management of fixed pollution sources. Implement comprehensive management of solid waste and carry out investigation and rectification of environmental safety hazards related to heavy metals. Strengthen environmental risk prevention and control, and deepen the treatment of new pollutants. Strengthen the construction of national security capabilities in the fields of biology, ecology, and nuclear science. Improve ecological environment standards, monitoring, evaluation, and assessment systems.
Adhere to the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasses, and sands, and coordinate the promotion of major projects for the protection and restoration of important ecosystems. Strictly adhere to the ecological protection red line, comprehensively promote the construction of a natural protected area system with national parks as the main body, and orderly establish new national parks. Strengthen biodiversity conservation. Strengthen the overall coordination and supervision management of ecology and environment, and carry out evaluation of the effectiveness of ecological protection and restoration. Scientifically carry out large-scale land greening actions and win the battle against the "Three Norths" project. Improve the diversified ecological compensation mechanism and expand the channels for realizing the value of ecological products according to local conditions. Strengthen the governance and ecological protection of important river, lake, and reservoir systems. Implement a ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River.
（3） Accelerate the construction of a new energy system. Continuously increasing the proportion of new energy supply, promoting the safe, reliable, and orderly replacement of fossil fuels, focusing on building a new type of power system, and constructing an energy powerhouse. Adhere to the development of multiple energy sources such as wind, solar, water, and nuclear power, coordinate on-site consumption and external transmission, and promote the high-quality development of clean energy. Strengthen the clean and efficient utilization of fossil fuels, promote the transformation and upgrading of coal-fired power plants, and replace loose coal. Comprehensively enhance the complementarity, mutual assistance, and safety resilience of the power system, scientifically layout pumped storage, vigorously develop new energy storage, and accelerate the construction of smart grids and microgrids. Improve the electrification level of terminal energy consumption and promote green and low-carbon energy consumption. Accelerate the establishment of a market and pricing mechanism that adapts to the new energy system.
（4） Actively and prudently promote and achieve carbon peak. Adhere to the principles of national coordination, prioritizing conservation, dual wheel drive, smooth internal and external communication, and risk prevention, implement the carbon peak action in a planned and step-by-step manner, and firmly grasp the pace and intensity of achieving carbon peak. Implement a dual control system for total carbon emissions and intensity. Deepen the implementation of energy-saving and carbon reduction transformation. Promote the peak consumption of coal and oil. Improve the carbon emission statistical accounting system, steadily implement policies and systems such as local carbon assessment, industry carbon control, enterprise carbon management, project carbon evaluation, and product carbon footprint. Develop distributed energy and build zero carbon factories and parks. Expand the coverage of the national carbon emission trading market, enrich trading varieties and methods, accelerate the construction of the voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market, and build a more effective, dynamic, and internationally influential carbon market. Establish a sound green and low-carbon standard system, promote the improvement and mutual recognition of leading international rules and standards. Improve the work system for adapting to climate change and enhance the ability to cope with climate change, especially extreme weather.
（5） Accelerate the formation of a green production and lifestyle. Deepen the management and control of ecological environment zoning, improve the control system covering the entire area, strengthen the connection with national spatial planning, and coordinate the optimization of industrial layout. Promote green and low-carbon transformation in key areas such as industry, urban-rural development, transportation, and energy, and continue to promote ultra-low emission transformation in key industries such as steel, cement, and coking. Improve the overall resource management and comprehensive conservation system, enhance the level of garbage classification and resource utilization, and promote the development of circular economy. Continuously building a national ecological civilization pilot zone, constructing a beautiful China pilot zone, and creating a green development highland. We will build beautiful cities and villages according to local conditions, carry out actions to protect and construct beautiful rivers, lakes, and bays, and form a number of demonstration models for the construction of a beautiful China. Implement policies in finance, taxation, investment, pricing, technology, and environmental protection to promote green and low-carbon development. Establish standards, certification, and labeling systems for green and low-carbon products, improve incentive mechanisms for green consumption, promote green and low-carbon lifestyles, and transform the construction of a beautiful China into a conscious action of all people.