Editor's note:
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee was held in Beijing from July 15 to 18. The Plenary Session adopted Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization. According to this resolution, to build a beautiful China and promote harmony between humanity and nature, we will ramp up the green transition in all areas of economic and social development. Through the improvement of the environmental monitoring and assessment system, the environmental governance system, and the green and low-carbon development mechanism, we look forward to prioritizing ecological protection, conserving resources and using them efficiently, and pursuing green and low-carbon development.
Chinese modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. We must work to improve ecological conservation systems and make concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, pursue green development, and boost economic growth. We must actively respond to climate change and move faster to improve the institutions and mechanisms for applying the principle that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.
(47) Improving the basic systems for ecological conservation.
We will implement region-specific environmental management systems featuring differentiated, targeted regulation and improve the systems for environmental monitoring and assessment. We will establish sound, united, well-aligned systems for regulating the use of territorial space of all types across the country and for approving territorial space plans. To improve the property rights and management systems for natural resource assets, we will refine the mechanism for the delegation of ownership over public-owned natural resource assets and establish systems for assessing and supervising performance in terms of protecting the environment, protecting and utilizing natural resources, and ensuring that natural resource assets hold their value and appreciate. We will improve the coordination mechanism for ensuring national ecological security. An environmental code will be compiled.
(48) Improving environmental governance systems.
We will develop responsibility, oversight, and market systems as well as laws, regulations, and policies to improve environmental governance. We will refine the institutions and mechanisms for ensuring that pollution control practices are targeted, grounded in science, and law-based, and implement an oversight system for stationary pollution sources centered on emissions permits. We will establish systems for the coordinated treatment of new pollutants and management of environmental risks and make a coordinated push to reduce the discharge of various pollutants. The reform to advance the law-based disclosure of environmental information will continue, and an environmental credibility oversight system will be put into place. We will develop systems for integrated upstream-downstream environmental governance in major river basins. Comprehensive efforts will be made to develop the national park-based system of protected areas.
We will implement the management system for ecological conservation redlines, improve the mechanisms for integrated protection and systematic governance of mountain, water, forest, farmland, grassland, and desert ecosystems, and develop multiple funding mechanisms for ecosystem protection and restoration. We will enforce the system of mandatory limits on the use of water resources and replace the water resource fee with a tax nationwide. The coordination mechanism for biodiversity protection will be enhanced, and the systems for developing and protecting marine resources will be improved. We will refine the mechanisms for realizing the market value of ecosystem goods and services. We will further reform the system of paid use for natural resources. We will advance comprehensive compensation for ecological conservation, improve the trans-regional compensation mechanism for ecological conservation, and take coordinated steps to promote compensation for environmental damage.
(49) Improving the mechanisms for green and low-carbon development.
We will implement fiscal, tax, financial, investment, and pricing policies as well as standards to support green and low-carbon development, develop green and low-carbon industries, improve incentive mechanisms for eco-friendly consumer spending, and work toward an economy that facilitates green, low-carbon, and circular development. We will optimize policies on green government procurement and refine the green taxation system. We will improve the systems for total resource consumption control and comprehensive resource conservation, as well as the system for recycling waste and used materials. Mechanisms for ensuring clean and efficient use of coal will be refined. We will accelerate the planning and development of a new type of energy system and improve the policies and measures for promoting the absorption of electricity generated from new energy sources into power grids and for the regulation of such energy. Improvements will be made to the working systems for adapting to climate change. New mechanisms will be put in place to facilitate the transition from controlling the total amount and intensity of energy consumption to controlling the total amount and intensity of carbon emissions. We will establish a carbon emissions statistics and accounting system, a carbon labeling and certification system, as well as a carbon footprint management system. We will also improve the cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions and the trading system for voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reduction. On this basis, we will actively and prudently move toward reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality.
Apart from the special chapter "Deepening the reform of the ecological civilization system", there are also some contents guiding the direction of ecological environmental protection, which are scattered in other chapters. For example:
(8) Improving the institutions and mechanisms for fostering new quality productive forces in line with local conditions. We will work to facilitate revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, innovative allocation of production factors, in-depth industrial transformation and upgrading, and the optimal combination of laborers, means of labor, and subjects of labor as well as their renewal and upgrading. All this will give rise to new industries, new business models, and new growth drivers and promote the development of productive forces that are characterized by high technology, high performance, and high quality. A stronger push will be made to pursue innovation in key generic technologies, cutting-edge technologies, modern engineering technologies, and disruptive technologies, and institutional supply will be boosted in new areas and arenas. We will establish a mechanism for ensuring funding increases for industries of the future, improve the policy and governance systems for promoting the development of strategic industries such as next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, aviation and aerospace, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, biomedicine, and quantum technology, and steer emerging industries toward sound and orderly development. National standards will be elevated to guide the upgrading of traditional industries, and enterprises will also be encouraged to apply digital, intelligent, and green technologies to transform and upgrade these sectors. We will impose tighter institutional constraints for environmental protection and safety.
(18) Deepening reform of the financial system. We will move faster to improve the central bank system and the monetary policy transmission mechanism. We will actively develop technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance and work to ensure quality financial services for major strategies, key fields, and weak links. We will refine the role and governance of financial institutions and the incentive and constraint mechanisms for ensuring that they serve the real economy. We will diversify equity financing, step up the development of multilevel bond markets, and increase the proportion of direct financing. We will optimize the state-owned financial capital management system.
(19) Improving mechanisms for implementing the coordinated regional development strategy. We will develop a regional economic layout and a territorial space system characterized by complementarity between different regions and territorial spaces. We will improve the institutional and policy frameworks for opening up a new vista in the large-scale development of the western region, achieving new breakthroughs in the full revitalization of the Northeast, accelerating the rise of the central region, and encouraging the eastern region to modernize more quickly. We will enable regions like the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to better play their roles as engines of high-quality development and improve the mechanisms for the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt and the ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin. We will move forward with the high-standard and high-quality development of the Xiong’an New Area. We will push for solid progress in developing the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone. We will improve the system of institutions for functional zoning and strengthen mechanisms to support optimal development of territorial spaces. We will improve integrated regional development mechanisms, build new mechanisms for cooperative development across administrative divisions, and deepen industrial collaboration between the eastern, central, and western regions. The institutions and mechanisms for promoting the development of the marine economy will be enhanced.
(24) Steadily expanding institutional opening up. We will promote alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules and harmonize rules, regulations, management, and standards relating to property rights protection, industrial subsidies, environmental standards, labor protection, government procurement, e-commerce, the financial sector, and other areas, in an effort to create an institutional environment that is transparent, stable, and predictable. We will seize the initiative by opening China’s commodity, services, capital, and labor markets wider to the outside world in an orderly manner and unilaterally opening our doors wider to the world’s least developed countries. We will further reform institutions and mechanisms for foreign aid to realize full-chain management.
(25) Deepening the foreign trade structural reform. We will better coordinate trade policies with fiscal, tax, financial, and industrial policies, create a set of systems and policies to support efforts to build China into a strong trading nation, step up reforms to integrate domestic and foreign trade, and actively respond to the trends of digital and green trade. We will develop new regulatory approaches for customs clearance, taxation, and foreign exchange and foster an institutional environment that is conducive to the development of new models and forms of trade. We will develop digital trade in an innovative manner and promote the development of integrated pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce. We will build commodity trading centers and global distribution centers, support various types of entities in developing logistics facilities overseas in a well-ordered way, and facilitate the development of international logistics hubs, as well as hubs for the distribution of commodities and resources, in areas where conditions allow. The mechanisms for preventing and controlling trade risks will be improved, and our export control framework and trade remedy system will be refined.
(28) Improving the mechanisms for high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. We will continue to implement the Belt and Road Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan and redouble efforts to develop multilateral platforms for cooperation in green development, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, energy, taxation, finance, disaster mitigation, and other areas. We will work to improve the integrated framework for land, sea, air, and cyberspace connectivity and build a multidimensional network to connect countries along the Belt and Road. We will make coordinated efforts to advance both major signature projects and “small but beautiful” public welfare projects.
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Disclaimer: This translation is provided for information only.It is an unofficial translation and may contain inaccuracies. Please refer to the original Chinese version for authoritative information, and feel free to provide any feedback on errors.
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