Ecologcial Civilization Construction in China's Government Work Report 2022
Hi, everyone, the Chinese Government Work Report 2022 is released today. The full text of English version is in this link http://english.www.gov.cn/premier/news/202203/12/content_WS622c96d7c6d09c94e48a68ff.html
I take out the paragraphs related to China’s ecological civilization construction and list them below for your reference.
(In the first part of “I. A Review of Our Work in 2021”)
—Ecological conservation was enhanced. Thanks to further steps taken to prevent and control pollution, the discharge of major pollutants continued to fall and the average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) dropped by 9.1 percent in cities at and above the prefecture level. The first group of national parks were officially established. Significant improvements were made in the quality of the environment.
(on “Our main work over the past year was as follows”)
6. We strengthened environmental protection and promoted sustainable development.
We consolidated our gains in keeping the skies blue, waters clear, and land pollution-free. We encouraged farmers to use chemical fertilizer and pesticide more efficiently and promoted the recycling of livestock and poultry waste. We continued major projects to protect and restore ecosystems, and fully enforced the ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River.
China’s installed capacity of renewable power exceeded one billion kilowatts. An action plan for peaking carbon emissions by 2030 was unveiled. The China Carbon Emission Trade Exchange was launched. We took active steps to respond to climate change.
7. We worked to ensure and improve the people’s wellbeing and accelerated development of social programs.
We intensified efforts to shore up weak links in rural compulsory education, and increased subsidies in the nutrition improvement program for compulsory-education students in rural areas, benefiting over 37 million students. We reduced the homework load and eased the off-campus tutoring burden on students in compulsory education. We surpassed the targets set in the three-year enrollment expansion initiative for vocational colleges. The cap for government-subsidized student loans was raised by 4,000 yuan per person per year, benefiting over five million students.
The basic pension for retirees was increased. Benefits were raised for entitled groups. To improve assistance and support for those in need, the scope of the subsistence allowance scheme was expanded to include people with serious illness or severe disability from families just outside the margin of eligibility.
We reformed the system for disease prevention and control. Outpatient bills for more common illnesses and chronic diseases became reimbursable under the basic medical insurance scheme, and 60 percent of cross-provincial inpatient medical expenses were directly settled where they were incurred. We tightened up regulation and supervision of drugs and vaccines.
The three- child policy was implemented. Elderly services were improved. Government-subsidized rental housing was increased at a faster pace. We developed cultural programs and the cultural sector, and launched new cultural projects to benefit the public. A sound online environment was fostered.
We actively carried out public fitness activities. Chinese athletes achieved great success in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. And thanks to meticulous preparation, China has presented the world with a simple, safe, and splendid 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The Paralympic Games, which has just opened, will undoubtedly also be a great success.
…
We promoted the building of a human community with a shared future, fostered global partnerships, and played an active part in the reform and development of the global governance system. We advanced international cooperation on Covid-19 response and worked with all other countries to respond to issues and challenges global in nature. We have thus contributed our share to promoting world peace and development.
(In the second part of “II. Overall Requirements and Policy Orientation for
Economic and Social Development in 2022”)
…
Ÿ further improvement in the environment
Ÿ continued reduction in the discharge of major pollutants
Ÿ energy consumption per unit of GDP to be assessed with appropriate flexibility within the framework of the 14th Five-Year Plan; and the exclusion of newly added renewable energy and coal, petroleum, and natural gas consumed as raw materials in the total amount of energy consumption.
…
(in the third part of “III. Major Tasks for 2022”)
8. Continuing to Improve the Environment and Promoting Green and Low-Carbon Development
We will work harder to address pollution and protect and restore ecosystems. We will promote development while also reducing emissions, and ensure greater harmony between humanity and nature.
We will improve the environment with a holistic approach. We will work to make solid gains in the battle against pollution. We will take coordinated steps to further control multiple atmospheric pollutants and treat them through coordination among regions. We will take stronger action to treat pollution in major rivers, lakes, and bays, and sustain our progress on preventing and controlling soil pollution. We will step up the treatment of solid waste and new pollutants and implement measures to sort refuse, reduce waste and boost recycling. We will improve policies to support environmental protection industries in conserving water and energy and recycling waste and used materials.
We will adopt a more region-specific approach to environmental management, launch greening programs in a well-conceived manner, and conduct in a coordinated way the conservation of mountain, river, forest, farmland, lake, grassland, and desert ecosystems. We will protect biodiversity and advance the development of the national park-based nature reserve system. With these efforts, we will make our common home greener and more beautiful.
We will take well-ordered steps to achieve peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. The action plan for peaking carbon emissions will be put into effect. To advance China’s energy revolution and ensure energy supply, we will, based on our resource endowment, push forward the transformation toward low-carbon development, in accordance with overall planning and the principle of establishing the new before abolishing the old. We will work harder to make coal usage cleaner and more efficient, while reducing the use of coal and replacing it with alternative energy sources in a well-ordered way. We will work to upgrade coal-fired power plants to conserve resources, reduce carbon emissions, make operations more flexible, and upgrade heating facilities.
We will advance the planning and construction of large-scale wind and photovoltaic power bases with supporting power sources that are adjustable, develop pumped-storage hydroelectric plants, and boost the capacity of power grids to absorb electricity generated from renewable energy sources. We will support the development of biomass energy. We will promote R&D and application of green and low-carbon technology, and develop green manufacturing and services. We will encourage the steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, chemicals and building materials industries to enhance energy conservation and reduce carbon emissions, and improve energy efficiency in transportation and buildings.
We are resolved to stop the blind development of energy-intensive projects with high emissions and backward production capacity. We will enhance the carbon absorption capacity of our ecosystems. We will transition from assessing the total amount and intensity of energy consumption to assessing the total amount and intensity of carbon emissions, improve policy incentives for reducing pollution and carbon emissions and policy constraints on such emissions, develop green finance, and promote faster development of green and low-carbon ways of working and living.
As we should not cut the ties between environmental protection and social development, I feel a pity to not list many paragraphs related to social development here to avoid the length of the newsletter. You can find them in the fulltext. ###