[Endeavour, New Journey, New Era, Great Change] Draw a picture of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
On August 15th, 2005, when the then Supreme Leader of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee visited Yucun, Anji County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, with a forward-looking strategic vision, he put forward the important conclusion of "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" for the first time, expounded the relationship between economic development and ecological environment protection, and revealed that protecting ecological environment means protecting productive forces, and improving ecological environment means developing productive forces, which is not only an important development concept, but also a major principle to promote modernization.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the guidance of the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought, all localities have treated the ecological environment like life, and actively explored the high-quality development in which environmental protection and economic growth complement each other. The concept of "two mountains" has become the consensus and action of the whole party and society.
Good ecology in exchange for golden rice bowl
The mountains are green and the bamboo sea is swaying. Entering Yucun, a huge stone engraved with the red Chinese character "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" is very eye-catching and has become a punching place for many tourists. As one of the most livable villages in China, Yucun has recently been selected as the first batch of "the world’s best tourist villages" newly announced by the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Yucun, located in the mountains in the northwest of Zhejiang Province, set up a lime kiln, a brick factory and a cement factory in order to get rid of the "poor hat". "At that time, the mining area was full of smoke and dust, and many villagers were afraid to open windows all the year round … …” Speaking of the ecological damage caused by the "stone economy", the villagers are still worried.
Under the guidance of the concept of "two mountains", Yucun closed the mine to restore the ecology and develop leisure tourism. From sacrificing the environment for growth to protecting the environment and optimizing growth, Yucun has embarked on a new road of "relying on mountains to eat mountains".
Yucun, who practices the concept of "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", shows that ecological advantages are also advantages of economic development. Taking the road of ecological priority and green development is a long-term strategy to solve development problems and cultivate development advantages.
Huaping County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, was once one of the 100 key coal-producing counties in China. The industrial structure of "one coal dominates" has resulted in a series of ecological and environmental problems. From Heishui in Montenegro, barren hills and barren hills to green hills, and then to Yinshan in Jinshan, Huaping County has explored the "four-turn model" of industrial transformation and mining area restoration in traditional coal mining areas, and the "ecological restoration model of Jinsha River Baili Mango Corridor" which combines the management and industrial cultivation in dry-hot valleys and rocky desertification areas, and realized the transformation from "black economy" to "green economy".
Huayang Lake is located in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, which has the reputation of "world factory". The "water" business here was once in full swing, producing sewage and garbage everywhere. After shutting down polluting enterprises, laying sewage interception pipe networks, repairing water bodies and beautifying embankments, Huayang Lake has been transformed from a stinking ditch into a national wetland park. The nearby Masan Village has increased its income by nearly 20 million yuan every year by transforming the old factory buildings along Huayang Lake.
Kayang Village, Xining City, Qinghai Province, was originally a poor village where "the mountains are bare, the land is sloping, and the villagers look at the sky and eat". After comprehensive control of soil erosion, the local area changed from "light green" to "dark green", relying on the nearby primitive natural forest area to embark on the road of rural revitalization and prosperity.
"In the past, the annual income of villagers was only 3,800 yuan. Now open a farmhouse to sell snacks and agricultural products, with an annual income of at least 14,500. " Li Mingdong, director of Kayang Village Committee, said.
"Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" "Protecting the ecological environment means protecting the productive forces, and improving the ecological environment means developing the productive forces" … … From concept to practice, a number of areas with "one oil alone", "one coal alone" and "one mine alone" have gradually got rid of the resource-consuming development model, a number of areas with developed industries but serious pollution have achieved green transformation, and a number of areas with excellent ecology have been initially cultivated to form green growth points, and the satisfaction of ecological civilization construction and the people’s sense of acquisition and happiness have been significantly improved.
Green water and green hills are labeled with value.
In March this year, Liangshan Ecological Construction Co., Ltd., Zhuxi County, Shiyan City, Hubei Province, obtained the first 300 million yuan of tea loan funds, which marked a key step for the local "Liangshan Bank" from platform construction to formal operation.
"Deposit" green mountains and green hills, "take out" Jinshan Yinshan. The "Two Mountains Bank" in Zhuxi County, which was established at the end of 2021, aims to gradually build a complete trading system of resource rights and interests indicators such as forest right, carbon sink, water right, energy use right, emission right and forest coverage rate, and promote the orderly trading of ecological products, so that green mountains and green mountains can become attractive and valuable.
Sun Jinlong, Party Secretary of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that the "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" fundamentally changed the traditional understanding that the ecological environment is priceless or low-priced, led a profound change in the concept and way of governing the country, and provided a new path for solving the difficult problems of development and protection and realizing the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
Make green mountains and green waters more beautiful. In 2012, Anhui and Zhejiang began to pilot the ecological compensation mechanism in Xin ‘anjiang River Basin, and established a compensation standard system according to the principle of "whoever benefits will be compensated and whoever protects will be compensated". The two provinces agreed that if the annual water quality reaches the standard, Zhejiang will allocate 100 million yuan to Anhui, while Anhui will allocate 100 million yuan to Zhejiang. Ensuring that Qing Jiang water flows east has become a compulsory question for Anhui. Nowadays, Xin ‘anjiang has become one of the rivers with the best water quality in China, and the water quality of Qiandao Lake is excellent.
Pricing green mountains and green waters. On the GEP accounting information platform of Wuyishan City, the prices of specific areas and resources in Wuyishan City can be displayed immediately by inputting variables such as service type, ecosystem, administrative division and index name.
"Everyone knows that Wuyi is good, but there is no scientific and quantitative indicator of what Wuyi’s landscape is good for." In December 2016, Wuyishan took the lead in carrying out the pilot project of ecosystem value accounting, formulated the index system and technical specifications reflecting the characteristics of mountainous areas, constructed "a set of numbers", "a picture" and "a system", and put a "value label" on green mountains and green hills.
Green water and green mountains can be measured, and the next step is to revitalize it. Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, built an ecological product market trading system, formulated and introduced the government procurement system of ecological products in Lishui City (forest) based on the principle of "ecological valuable and paid use", coordinated the provincial financial award funds and the matching funds of cities and counties, established a fund pool, and guaranteed and promoted the government purchase of ecological products.
In July 2021, the national carbon emission trading market was officially launched, and "carbon assets" were endowed with market value and liquidity, and the national carbon trading reached a new level.
Subsequently, Guizhou Jinyuan Qianxi Zhongshui Power Generation Co., Ltd., the State Power Investment Group, mortgaged its 600,000 tons of carbon emission rights and successfully borrowed more than 28 million yuan from Minsheng Bank, becoming the first batch of similar financial services in China after the national carbon emission rights registration and settlement system was launched.
A trickle flows into the sea and becomes a hill. Protect the beauty of "green mountains and green hills" and become a "golden mountain and silver mountain", and the road to exploration is getting wider and wider.
Polish the background color of green development
The Beijing Winter Olympics, which closed not long ago, left a deep green impression on the world. At the opening ceremony, the raging fire was replaced by "slight fire", Shougang’s industrial heritage was incarnated as "Snow Flying", and 26 venues in the three major competition areas realized 100% green power supply. The National Speed Skating Hall "Ice Ribbon" became the world’s first highway speed skating hall & HELIP; …
"Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" leads China to a comprehensive green economic and social transformation.
The ecological security barrier was gradually strengthened. By the end of 2021, there were 474 national nature reserves and 5 national parks in China. New achievements have been made in "rejuvenation". In 2021, the national afforestation area was 3.6 million hectares, including 1.34 million hectares of artificial afforestation; Planting grass to improve the area of 3.07 million hectares; The newly-increased soil erosion control area is 62,000 square kilometers.
The energy consumption structure was continuously optimized. According to preliminary calculations, in 2021, the proportion of clean energy consumption such as natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power and solar power generation in total energy consumption increased by 1.0 percentage points over the previous year, while the proportion of coal consumption decreased by 0.8 percentage points.
The output of green products increased rapidly. In 2021, the output of new energy vehicles and solar cells in China increased by 145.6% and 42.1% respectively over the previous year.
Everyone is a protector, builder and beneficiary of the ecological environment, and everyone should be a practitioner of the concept of "two mountains". The Report on the Investigation of Citizens’ Eco-environmental Behavior (2021) shows that the public generally has a sense of environmental responsibility and a strong will for environmental behavior. More than 80% of the respondents can save resources and energy by turning off electrical appliances, lights or faucets in time, and nearly 70% of the respondents can basically achieve "the air conditioning temperature setting in summer is not lower than 26 degrees Celsius".
A survey conducted by the research group of the Institute of Ecological Civilization of China Academy of Social Sciences in 2021 showed that the public highly recognized ecological civilization, and their understanding of the relationship between environment and development changed greatly. About 55% of the public believed that protecting the environment would bring many new economic opportunities and the prospects would be better and better.
Environment is people’s livelihood, green hills are beautiful, and blue sky is also happiness. A good ecological environment is the growth point of people’s life and the support point of sustained and healthy economic and social development. This has inspired more and more people to put the concept of "two mountains" into action, and to outline a beautiful new picture of China with green practice. (Economic Daily reporter Cao Hongyan)