Han Bin: Unswervingly Pursue the Path of Ecological Priority and Green Development
China's economy has transitioned from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, and is currently in a critical period of transforming the development model, optimizing the economic structure, and shifting growth drivers. Correcting the relationship between economic development and ecological environmental protection is vital to high-quality development and the enhancement of long-term national competitiveness. Based on profound insight into the major trends of China's economic development, General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: “We must firmly establish and practice the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and unswervingly follow the path of ecological priority and green development.” This reflects a profound reflection on and transcendence of traditional development models, providing directional guidance for promoting the high-quality economic and social development of our country.
Consistent and Profound Theoretical Logic
Following the path of ecological priority and green development reflects the inheritance and development of Marxist ideas regarding the relationship between humanity and nature. It imparts a distinct green undertone to economic and social development, aligns with China's practical needs, and possesses rich scientific connotations and profound theoretical logic.
First, it enriches and develops the basic principles of Marxism. The path of ecological priority and green development differs from the old Western path of modernization, which was capital-centered, characterized by bloated materialism, and followed a "pollute first, treat later" approach. It applies and develops the Marxist viewpoint on the dialectical unity between humanity and nature, and between production and ecology. By developing new quality productive forces and transforming modes of production, it ensures that human economic activities adapt to the carrying capacity of natural ecosystems, achieving the organic unity of economic development and ecological environmental protection. "Ecological priority" manifests a value orientation, requiring that ecological environmental protection be treated as a priority consideration during economic decision-making, industrial layout, and project construction. This value orientation is a vivid manifestation of the people-centered development philosophy—it does not treat GDP as the sole evaluation metric, but rather takes the improvement of people's wellbeing as its starting point and ultimate goal. This represents an innovative application and development of the Marxist views on the people and nature, reflecting a shift in the understanding of ecological issues from instrumental rationality to value rationality.
Second, it represents a profound reflection on and breakthrough from traditional development models. The developmental logic established by industrial civilization stems from a summary of the developmental experiences of Western nations. Within the context of building a community with a shared future for humanity and pursuing global sustainable development, the past development model—characterized by high input, high consumption, and high pollution, and over-reliant on resource exploitation and factor inputs to drive growth—is unsustainable. While this model promoted rapid economic growth, it also brought about resource shortages, environmental pollution, and ecosystem degradation, posing severe challenges to human survival and development. Under the logic of "pollute first, treat later" or "develop first, protect later," environmental governance models focused primarily on end-of-pipe treatment. The speed of treatment struggled to keep pace with the spread of pollution, leading to an increasing contradiction between economic development and ecological environmental protection. Following the path of ecological priority and green development discards the short-sighted behavior of one-sidedly pursuing economic growth found in traditional models, emphasizing the coordinated advancement of both development and protection. By transforming the mode of development, it achieves a transition from relying mainly on factor inputs to being innovation-driven; from the destruction of the ecological environment to a dynamic balance between protection, restoration, and rational development; and from the conquest of nature toward the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature.
Third, it constitutes an active adaptation to new situations and changes. As China enters the stage of high-quality development, the principal contradiction in society has evolved into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The masses now have a stronger demand for a good ecological environment. The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has accurately grasped the stage-specific characteristics and requirements of China's development, organically unifying the resolution of high-quality development issues with the fulfillment of the people's new expectations for high-quality life, and proposing the unswerving pursuit of ecological priority and green development. On one hand, protecting and improving the ecological environment is placed in a more prominent position to create a pleasant environment, promote green and healthy lifestyles, and satisfy the people’s aspirations for a better life. A good ecological environment is the fairest public product and the most universal contribution to the people's wellbeing. Promoting the formation of green development models and lifestyles allows the masses to fully share in "ecological dividends," continuously enhancing their sense of gain, happiness, and security. On the other hand, it emphasizes planning development from the height of the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature, confining economic activities and human behavior within the limits of what natural resources and the environment can sustain. This promotes a shift in development during the green transition toward an effective improvement in quality and a reasonable growth in quantity. This requires further improving mechanisms for green and low-carbon development and constructing a green, low-carbon, and circular economic system, so that economic and social development is built on the foundation of efficient resource utilization and strict ecological protection, pushing industries toward the high end of the value chain.
Significant Results in Practical Exploration
Managing the relationship between development and protection is a worldwide difficulty and an eternal challenge facing the development of human society. Since the New Era began, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made comprehensive and systematic deployments through comprehensively deepening reform, providing policy guidance and institutional safeguards. This has pushed China’s path of ecological priority and green development to become increasingly substantive, contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to global economic development and the construction of ecological civilization.
Systematic deployment has been made in top-level design. The CPC Central Committee has incorporated the construction of ecological civilization as a vital component of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four Comprehensives. It has integrated the adherence to the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature into the basic strategy for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, and treated green development as an essential part of the New Development Philosophy. The "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development" issued in 2024 clearly proposed key tasks and specific measures for promoting green transformation in terms of spatial development patterns, industrial structure, energy, and transportation. This has further strengthened the institutionalization and systematization of China's green development. The "Opinions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on Promoting Green and Low-Carbon Transformation and Strengthening the Construction of the National Carbon Market" issued this year focused on deploying tasks such as accelerating the construction of the national carbon emission rights trading market, actively developing the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market, and striving to enhance carbon market vitality, providing institutional safeguards for the path of ecological priority and green development.
Implementation is carried out during the accelerated comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. This transformation covers various fields and links, including industrial structure adjustment, energy structure optimization, and changes in production and lifestyles, constituting a full-chain green governance system from source to end. Regarding industrial structure adjustment, China has vigorously developed green industries such as new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, ecological agriculture, and ecotourism. The "New Three" [1]—represented by new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products—have become new growth points for exports. Traditional high-energy-consuming industries such as steel and cement are undergoing orderly transformation through industrial structure optimization and innovations in energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies. Energy consumption per unit of GDP continues to decline; in 2024, carbon dioxide emissions per 10,000 yuan of GDP nationwide decreased by 3.4% year-on-year. Regarding energy structure optimization, the proportion of clean energy in the energy consumption structure has gradually increased, while reliance on traditional fossil fuels like coal and oil has continued to decrease. The installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind power has ranked first in the world for several years. In 2024, the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption rose to 19.8%, and the proportion of installed coal power capacity fell below 40%. Regarding the transformation of production and lifestyles, China is actively constructing a production system for green, low-carbon, and circular development and advocating for green, low-carbon lifestyles. In 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "Notice on Carrying Out the Construction of Zero-Carbon Industrial Parks," proposing to "support qualified regions in taking the lead in building a batch of zero-carbon industrial parks" and "promote the low-carbon and zero-carbon transformation of various parks in a planned and step-by-step manner." This guides enterprises to phase out backward production capacity, processes, and equipment, coordinates the spatial layout of parks and enterprises, and optimizes the planning and design of park infrastructure, leading to a comprehensive improvement in the level of green production. Simultaneously, China is vigorously improving incentive mechanisms for green consumption. In recent years, the scale of green consumption in China has continued to expand, with consumption of new energy vehicles, energy-saving and water-saving products, and second-hand goods becoming a trend, as the concept of green consumption becomes deeply rooted in people's hearts.
Anchoring Goals for Continuous Advancement
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee [2] made the important deployment to "accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development and build a Beautiful China." We must accurately grasp the stage-specific requirements of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period (2026–2030), unswervingly follow the path of ecological priority and green development, and integrate the concept of green development into the entire process and all aspects of economic and social development.
Further strengthen ecological environmental protection and restoration. High-level protection is a vital support for high-quality development. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a key period for the construction of a Beautiful China to build on past achievements and realize a fundamental improvement in the ecological environment. In response to the fact that structural, root-cause, and trend-related pressures on China's ecological environment have not yet been fundamentally alleviated, we must adhere to systematic and scientific methods, promoting natural recovery and artificial restoration tailored to local conditions. We should fully utilize ecological environment zoning controls as a foundational institutional role in accelerating the comprehensive green transformation. We must holistically consider natural ecological elements—such as mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts [3]—performing integrated protection, systematic restoration, and comprehensive governance. Continuous efforts should be made regarding the governance of key regions, the construction of national parks, and the building of modern ecological environmental infrastructure.
Promote the green and low-carbon development of urban and rural construction with greater intensity. Urban and rural construction is a vital aspect of building a Beautiful China. Currently, problems such as a lack of holism, insufficient systematicity, and low habitability still exist in China's urban and rural construction fields. The extensive construction method characterized by "massive construction, massive consumption, and massive emissions" still persists. In urban development, we must implement the spirit of the Central Urban Work Conference, striving to build vibrant, innovative cities and green, low-carbon, beautiful cities. We should promote the formation of industrial scales and layouts of productive forces that are coordinated with the ecological environment, accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, continuously alleviate the urban heat island effect and pollution pressure, and promote the synergistic enhancement of pollution reduction, carbon reduction, and green expansion. In rural development, we should start by making up for shortcomings in public infrastructure and public services, improving the living environment and sanitary conditions, and promoting the treatment of rural domestic waste and sewage. We should optimize the structure of agricultural production and its regional layout, promote the application of green technologies such as water-saving irrigation and scientific fertilization and pesticide use, avoid the excessive consumption of water and soil resources, improve resource utilization and land yield rates, promote the resource-based utilization of agricultural waste, and accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of agricultural development.
Positively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Striving to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 is a major strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee. We must treat the reduction of carbon emission intensity as a binding indicator, accelerate the accounting of total carbon emissions, and establish and improve an evaluation and assessment system for local carbon emission targets. Centering on the indicators of total carbon emissions and intensity, we should incorporate metrics such as energy structure, energy consumption intensity, resource utilization efficiency, ecosystem carbon sinks, and green transformation in key areas. We must strengthen carbon emission control over various regions and key sectors, industries, and enterprises, construct a product carbon footprint management system, and implement a product carbon labeling certification system to provide a strong guarantee for green and low-carbon development.