The 18th CPC National Congress included ecological progress construction into the "Five-in-One" layout of socialism with Chinese characteristics and put forward the ambitious goal of building a beautiful China. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed that China should build a systemic and comprehensive institutional system for ecological progress to preserve the eco-system with institutions.

According to the requirements proposed, Premier Li Keqiang put great emphasis on protecting the ecological environment and building a beautiful homeland with a sound ecological environment in his 2014 Report on the Work of the Government. Also, he proposed that the government should take effective measures to strengthen pollution prevention and control, reform energy production and consumption, and move forward with ecological protection and efforts. By saying "we will declare war against pollution and fight it with the same determination we battled poverty," Premier Li Keqiang demonstrated the government's resolution to step up its pace in pollution prevention and control, and pointed out clearly the strategic way to prevent and control pollution, protect the eco-environment and improve ecology.

• Ecological progress concerns people's lives and the future of our nation

The goal of ecological progress is to achieve modernization and make China a moderately developed country by the middle of this century, with all people having access to material and cultural achievements, and at the same time ensure a friendly eco-environment where people can revel in blue skies and green mountains. To pursue a better life is a long term dream of the Chinese nation, as well as a right for all Chinese people and their descendants. To build a beautiful China with harmony between humans and nature, and ensure sustainable development of the Chinese nation, we have no choice but to push forward ecological civilization construction.

However, we are faced with a stern reality. After more than 60 years of modernization construction, and the past 30 years of rapid economic development in particular, we witnessed the miracle of industrialization and modernization on a scale larger than any in human history, yet suffer from the short-term outbreak of compacted environmental problems accumulated over hundreds of years by developed countries. Though China has caught up with high and middle-income countries in terms of GDP per capita, clean water, fresh air and safe food are still unavailable in some areas. Worse still, this may impact our future development. To guarantee the eco-environment rights of Chinese people, the 18th National Congress of the CPC included ecological progress into the "Five-in-One" layout of our modernization drive, and underlined its prominent position and vital importance. What's more, the Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee furthered plans on the acceleration of ecological progress.

• Build a systemic and comprehensive institutional system

The general objective for deepening reform put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee is to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to advance modernization in the State governance system and governance capability. The ecological progress system is an important part of State governance, and is crucial for enhancing the ability of protecting eco-environment so as to achieve sustainable development of the country.

The ecological progress institutional system covers the overall process of energy utilization, and touches upon production and consumption in various aspects, thus calling for an overall understanding of the situation.

In terms of regulation, the system should cover such areas including natural resources property rights and use control, main functional area planning, eco-environmental protection, and compensation for resources use and damage caused to the ecosystem. Considering the process of ecological progress, the system should incorporate four aspects, namely decision-making, management, evaluation and check-up. In addition, the system can exist in the form of laws, regulations, standards, institutions, mechanisms and procedures.

• Strengthen pollution prevention and control, and accelerate the improvement of the environment supervision system

Under the rigorous situation of resource shortage, environmental pollution and ecosystem degeneration, ecological progress construction should be focused on pollution prevention and control and improving the environment supervision system, so as to take strict precautions at the beginning, strictly control processes, and severely punish consequences.

Considering that environmental degradation has a serious impact on people's lives, and public calls for a better environment are stronger, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have devoted greater efforts to energy conservation, emissions reduction, and pollution prevention and control. In the last decade, the country increased efforts in emission reduction and pollution control, with money used for pollution prevention and control increasing to 825.35 billion yuan ($13.13 billion) in 2012, 1.59 percent of GDP, from 116.67 billion yuan in 2001, 1.06 percent of GDP.

Emissions reduction in engineering progressed fast, and the proportion of desulfurated coal-burning power plants rose to 92 percent in 2012 from 12 percent in 2005. Denitrated power plants rose to 27.6 percent in 2012 from 11.2 percent in 2010. Thanks to efforts, total emissions of sulfur dioxide have declined since 2006. Nitrogen oxide declined for the first time on record, and it is expected to continue declining. To tackle frequent haze across the country, the State Council issued An Action Plan on Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Treatment in September 2013. It also took many measures to deal with air pollution, such as industrial restructuring and control of total coal consumption, traffic emissions and wind-borne dust. In this year's Report on the Work of the Government, Premier Li Keqiang clarified the requirements of shutting down small coal-fired furnaces, promoting the desulfurating process of coal-burning power plants, eliminating high-emission vehicles, and developing green production, in addition to the tasks of land restoration and non-point agricultural source pollution control.

Premier Li Keqiang stressed that pollution prevention and control requires forceful measures as well as an improved new mechanism involving the government, enterprises and the public. For the long-term, we should establish an effective environment regulation and supervision system by combining institutional improvement and changing concepts with regulations and laws, national mandates, market incentives and public supervision.

From the perspective of the State governance system and governance capability, we should reinforce legal construction. We should also ensure the government exercises its supervisory power according to the law and carries out standard and transparent decision-making and law enforcement processes to enhance environment supervision. We should perfect the supervision process and mechanism, and improve the internal top-down accountability mechanism. By publishing environmental regulation information, enterprises along with the performance of environmental regulators will be supervised. The external bottom up accountability mechanism has been established to force enterprises to behave well and regulators to fulfill their responsibilities

• Deal with environmental pollution situation and protection in a rational way

The country is in a phase of rapid industrialization and urbanization, during which the government has been working on environmental protection. On one hand, environmental problems that plague developed countries over one to two centuries have broken out intensively in China. On the other hand, drawing lessons in dealing with pollution from developed countries, the country has paid great attention to pollution prevention and control. At present, the task is extremely complicated and needs to be addressed with objective analysis and rational reflections. Taking air pollution as an example, the country is challenged by serious air pollution with extended haze over large areas. However, the public has misconceptions that this is a result of the government's ineffective measures and negative behavior. Through a study of the relation between peak air pollutant emissions and economic growth, we believe that the actions and policies taken in China are not inadequate. As a matter of fact, our pollution prevention and control are ahead of the curve in relation to the stage of our economic growth. From 1997 to 2012, the average density of PM10 in key cities dropped by 40 percent to 83 micrograms per cubic meter from 145 micrograms per cubic meter.

The current haze is a complex pollution phenomena caused by various factors, including high population density, the super speed of industrialization, an energy structure relying on coal, the high use of fertilizer, explosive growth in vehicles, as well as special geographical and climate conditions. We are in urgent need to accelerate research on how haze forms so that we can make specific measures to tackle this problem.

Remarkable environmental improvements indicate the achievements in ecological progress, which is a long term process. Western industrialized countries began air pollution control efforts in the 1970s and spent about 30 years improving air quality and reducing air pollutants emission by 80-90 percent gradually. Taking developed countries as a reference, China may also need 20-30 years to realize good air quality across the country, which means the disparity between public expectations of good air quality and the actual effects of air pollution prevention and control will exist for a long period. Even the most effective methods can't ensure immediate results on emissions reduction. All this calls for the public's understanding of the long-lasting and arduous features of pollution prevention and control in our country, and their joint efforts for environmental pollution control.

Authors：Gao Shiji, Chen Jianpeng, research fellows of the Development Research Center of the State Council

Source: People's Daily, April 4, 2014