Wang Xiangrong: Improving the Fundamental Institutions of Ecological Civilization and Perfecting the System of Ecological Environmental Governance
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee pointed out that "Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature," and required "accelerating the improvement of systems and mechanisms for implementing the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [1]. This fully reflects the high level of importance attached to ecological civilization construction as a strategic support for national development.
Guiding All Regions to Establish "Three Lines and One List"
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, our Party's understanding of ecological civilization construction has continuously deepened, and various decisions and deployments for ecological civilization construction have been implemented and advanced in an orderly manner. Overall, however, the root, structural, trend-based, overlapping, and composite pressures on ecological and environmental protection have not yet been fundamentally alleviated.
Under the new situation, accelerating the improvement of systems and mechanisms for implementing the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets is not limited to increasing the area of "blooming flowers and green grass." Rather, it must focus on perfecting the fundamental system of ecological civilization, improving the ecological environment governance system, and broadly guiding the establishment of the concepts that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," "the ecological environment is both a resource and capital," and "to destroy the ecological environment is to destroy productive forces, to protect the ecological environment is to protect productive forces, and to improve the ecological environment is to develop productive forces."
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed implementing an ecological environment management system characterized by regionalized, differentiated, and precise controls, and improving the systems for monitoring and evaluating the ecological environment. One fundamental project in this regard is to guide all regions across the country to accelerate the establishment of the "Red Line for Ecological Protection, Bottom Line for Environmental Quality, Upper Limit for Resource Utilization, and Negative List for Environmental Entry" (referred to as the "Three Lines and One List") [2]. This is an important lever for accelerating the improvement of systems and mechanisms to implement the "lucid waters and lush mountains" concept, and an important support for promoting a systematic, scientific, law-based, refined, and information-based approach to ecological civilization construction.
First, we must strengthen overall coordination and alignment. This involves connecting ecological protection, environmental quality management, environmental carrying capacity monitoring and early warning, spatial planning, and strategic and programmatic environmental impact assessments (EIA), so as to implement regionalized environmental control in an integrated manner.
Second, we must reinforce spatial control. This involves integrating the environmental control requirements of the ecological protection red line, ecological space, environmental quality bottom line, and resource utilization upper limit to form a spatial control system based on environmental control units.
Third, we must highlight differentiated entry requirements. Differentiated environmental entry requirements should be formulated in terms of spatial layout, pollutant discharge, and resource development and utilization to promote refined management.
On this basis, we should further implement the management system for the ecological protection red line; improve the mechanism for integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass, and sand [3]; and build diversified investment mechanisms for ecological protection and restoration. We should improve the mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products, deepen the reform of the system for the paid use of natural resources, promote comprehensive ecological compensation, improve the horizontal ecological protection compensation mechanism [4], and promotes the compensation for ecological environmental damage in a coordinated manner.
Promoting Co-construction, Co-governance, and Sharing of the Ecological Environment in the Yangtze River Delta
The Yangtze River Delta [5] is an important engine for new-type urbanization and high-quality development, and it is the urban agglomeration with the highest population density and total population in China. It possesses a composite and fragile nature regarding economic, social, and environmental development. Under the new situation, it is necessary to focus on promoting the co-construction, co-governance, and sharing of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Delta region. We must synergistically promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, while continuously improving regional connectivity, economic concentration, and policy synergy.
Regarding co-construction, it is necessary to strengthen deep cooperation among cities in the Yangtze River Delta, explore the joint construction of regional natural ecosystem reserves, anchor cross-border ecological spaces, and ensure the integrity and health of ecosystems.
In terms of co-governance, we should take the creation of a "community of life" consisting of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass, and sand as our guide. This involves unified planning, unified standards, and the coordinated management of regional ecological elements. We must innovate governance methods to match the supply and demand of ecological services and ensure the smooth flow of trans-regional ecosystem service products.
Regarding sharing, we must further improve the cross-regional and basin-wide ecological compensation mechanism, allowing residents of the Yangtze River Delta to share green ecological spaces and ecological services, thereby writing a new chapter in the construction of a green ecological community in the Yangtze River Delta.
In practice, based on the successful experience of the Yangtze River Delta Integrated Green Development Demonstration Zone, we can actively expand new spaces for southward and northward synergistic cooperation. Northward, the focus should be on building a synergistic cooperation demonstration zone around the Yangtze River Estuary, with the goal of becoming a world-class resilient estuary and a leading area for coastal responses to climate change in China. It is suggested to start with Chongming and Qidong as priorities, and then expand to Pudong, Baoshan, Jiading, Taicang, Haimen, and other places. Southward, the focus should be on building a synergistic cooperation demonstration zone around the Hangzhou Bay Greater Bay Area, with the goal of becoming a Greater Bay Area with high diversity (biological, industrial, and natural landscape) and a best-practice area for natural space protection in high-density metropolitan regions. Initially, the focus should be on Pudong, Fengxian, and Jinshan on the north shore of Hangzhou Bay, as well as Pinghu and Haiyan. Later, as synergistic cooperation matures and improves, it should cross both the north and south shores of Hangzhou Bay to jointly build a complete green development synergistic cooperation demonstration zone for the Greater Bay Area.
The Yangtze River Estuary possesses the highest quality ecological resource endowment in Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Yangtze River Basin. It serves as the "source" and "sink" for the comprehensive green transition of regional economic and social development, and it is an important site for practicing land-sea coordination and improving the carrying capacity of national spatial territory. Under the new situation, we should lose no time in organizing a unified investigation of the ecological resource endowments of the estuary and bay areas, jointly compiling ecological protection plans, and jointly formulating environmental protection standards. We should also consider the inherent resource characteristics and specific problems of the new spaces in the estuary and bay areas to create a specialized and synergistic institutional system accordingly.
Relevant research reveals that high-value carbon sinks at the prefecture-level city scale in the Yangtze River Delta primarily appear in the western region, especially the southern Anhui (Wannan) region. This area has low energy consumption and fewer carbon emissions, and based on the age structure of the vegetation, there is still significant room to improve carbon sink capacity. It is suggested that, following the models of joint construction of grain bases, joint construction of industrial parks, and cross-regional coordination of land indicators, we should establish a cross-regional cooperation system for regions supplying ecological products and high-quality environmental products (including carbon emission quotas and trading, and the supply of ecosystem service products). Consideration could be given to establishing a "Shanghai–Xuancheng–Huangshan Carbon Trading Cooperation Demonstration Zone," which would alleviate the pressure of CO2 emissions in Shanghai while providing ecological compensation to Anhui, improving the ecological environment and the living standards of local residents, and achieving regional coordinated compensation for areas that provide high natural value.
Shanghai is located at the terminus of the Yangtze River Basin, and its domestic water mainly comes from the main stream of the Yangtze River and the Taihu Lake Basin. Combined with the evaluation of the water conservation capacity of the regional ecosystem, the focus could be on controlling the water quality and quantity standards of lakes such as the Taipu River Clear Water Green Corridor and Taiping Lake. It is suggested to establish a "Shanghai–Suzhou–Southern Anhui–Northern Zhejiang Mountainous Cities Freshwater Supply Service Compensation Demonstration Zone" and accelerate the construction and improvement of the Taipu River Clear Water Green Corridor. Based on a synergistic cooperation system that manifests natural value and manages basin cross-sections, we should identify the contribution levels of upstream and downstream areas in providing ecological products and realizing ecological value, and subsequently formulate corresponding economic incentives and two-way control measures to achieve natural resource protection and enhance the ecological well-being of basin residents.
Furthermore, following the principles of regional collaboration and inter-city sharing, more large-scale national parks, country parks, and natural ecological parks should be constructed within metropolitan areas such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei. Through measures such as an inter-city equal access system and improved transportation accessibility, inter-city sharing can be achieved to meet the demands of Yangtze River Delta residents for green ecological spaces. In the long term, we should also focus on the intensive planning of coastal construction land, reducing its vulnerability and enhancing the scale and function of coastal wetlands; coordinate the growth of hydrodynamic forces in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River with pollution control in the basin to promote clean water at the mouth of the river; and enhance the water storage and flood regulation capacity of urban rivers and lakes, advocating for the integration of sponge city and resilient city construction.
(The author is a Distinguished Professor at Fudan University and a Counselor of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government)
Source: Jiefang Daily Web Editor: Huihui