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Thursday March 28, 2024

Xi vows tough battle against pollution to boost ecological advancement

By Xinhua
May 21, 2018

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country will fight a good battle against pollution and push ecological civilization to a new level during a tone-setting meeting on environmental protection ending Saturday.

China will push for coordination between economic and social development and ecological civilization, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said when addressing the two-day national conference.

Xi said the country will channel more energy into promoting ecological civilization and resolving environmental problems, backed by the political advantages of the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC and the socialist system, as well as the achievements made during the 40 years of reform and opening-up.

Building an ecological civilization is of fundamental importance for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, Xi said, noting that a great deal of work has been done since the 18th CPC National Congress to bring profound and historical changes regarding ecological and environment protection.

China has started to conduct central environmental inspections, carried out guidelines to control air, water and soil pollution, published its own plans to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and is implementing a national plan to tackle the climate change.

Despite overall improvement in China’s ecological environment, Xi said the progress was not made in a firm manner.

The building of ecological civilization has entered a critical period, a period that requires more quality ecological goods to meet people’s ever-growing demands for a beautiful environment, and a period when China is capable of addressing prominent ecological and environment issues, he said.

With the Chinese economy transitioning from high-speed growth to high-quality development, Xi said there will be conventional and unconventional challenges and difficulties. “We must bite the bullet and overcome them,” he said.

Xi said ecology and environment are closely connected with people’s well-being, urging works to be done to meet public expectations by stepping up the building of ecological civilization and providing more quality ecological products.

Xi said China must abide by the following principles to push forward ecological civilization in a new era:

— Ensuring harmony between human and nature. China must stick to the policy of putting conservation and protection first, and mainly relying on the natural recovery of the environment.

— Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. China must pursue the vision of innovative, coordinated, green and open development that is for everyone, accelerate forming spatial patterns, industrial structures, production and living modes that are resource-saving and environmental-friendly, and provide time and space for the natural ecology to rehabilitate.

— Sound ecological environment is the most inclusive benefits to people’s wellbeing. Priority should be given to addressing prominent environmental problems that are harmful to people’s health in order to keep up with people’s ever-growing needs for a better environment.

— Mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands are a life community. The building of ecological civilization must take all factors into consideration with good overall plans and multiple measures.

— Protecting the environment requires the best institutional arrangements and the strictest rule of law. Institutional innovations must be accelerated and enforcement of laws and regulations must be strengthened.

— Working together on global ecological civilization construction and getting deeply involved in global environmental governance to come up with a worldwide solution for environmental protection and sustainable development, while guiding international cooperation to tackle climate change.

Xi stressed that China should accelerate the construction of an ecological civilization system and the fostering of an ecological culture that values ecology and environment.

The nation must speed up the construction of the ecological civilization system, to ensure that by 2035, there will be a fundamental improvement in the quality of the environment, and the goal of building a Beautiful China will be basically attained.

Xi called for comprehensive efforts to promote green development, which is not only an inevitable requirement to develop a modernized high-quality economy but also a fundamental solution to tackle pollution.