Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development …
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situation that China is in and the challenges faced, plan for the development of a
socialist ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics, actively participate in
global environmental governance, and contribute to the global response to climate
change and global sustainability.
Over the past 40 years, one of the most important lessons that the Chinese people
learned is to make development and environmental protection mutually supportive.
Since the launch of the reform and opening-up policy, China has experienced rapid
economic growth and continuous social transformations, and gained deeper and
deeper understanding of the relationship between development and the environment.
On the one hand, due to the constraints posed by the current development stage,
comprehensive capabilities, and international division of labor, we have to make
appropriate trade-offs between environmental protection and economic growth and
choose to prioritize different development goals, still failing to avoid the pollutionfirst path. On the other hand, with the continuous improvement of the Chinese government’s environmental governance capabilities and Chinese people’s environmental
awareness, environmental protection has climbed up in the list of the Chinese government’s policy priorities. It should be pointed out here that China’s understanding of
the environment and its ecological value also changed greatly with time and it is
thus necessary and important that we adjust our environmental protection measures,
standards, and policies as we move forward. The ultimate goal is to strike a balance
between the environment and development and maintain harmony between human
and nature.
We should also see that, although the targets of China’s ecological environment
governance system are clear, there are still different views on the relationship between
the what the reform aims at and what is currently in place, the combination of
top-level design and basic-level practices, comprehensive advancement, priorities in
system development, goals and objectives, improvement of governance capabilities,
the pace of the reform and relevant action plans. We must realize that ecological
civilization development and sustainable development are systematic projects which
require consensuses and participation of the whole society. We need to comprehensively deepen our understanding, overcome the constraints imposed by vested interests, solve theoretical and practical problems, keep the appropriate pace, promote
innovation and systematically advance the development of an ecological civilization.
2 Main Issues and Trends in Ecological Civilization
Development
1. Main issues
The task of building an ecological civilization, which is highly relevant to the longterm development of China, remains onerous. Land use planning needs to be further
improved. The spatial layout of economic activities is currently not in harmony with
the spatial layout of resources. A lot of agricultural and protected land is illegally
61
situation that China is in and the challenges faced, plan for the development of a
socialist ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics, actively participate in
global environmental governance, and contribute to the global response to climate
change and global sustainability.
Over the past 40 years, one of the most important lessons that the Chinese people
learned is to make development and environmental protection mutually supportive.
Since the launch of the reform and opening-up policy, China has experienced rapid
economic growth and continuous social transformations, and gained deeper and
deeper understanding of the relationship between development and the environment.
On the one hand, due to the constraints posed by the current development stage,
comprehensive capabilities, and international division of labor, we have to make
appropriate trade-offs between environmental protection and economic growth and
choose to prioritize different development goals, still failing to avoid the pollutionfirst path. On the other hand, with the continuous improvement of the Chinese government’s environmental governance capabilities and Chinese people’s environmental
awareness, environmental protection has climbed up in the list of the Chinese government’s policy priorities. It should be pointed out here that China’s understanding of
the environment and its ecological value also changed greatly with time and it is
thus necessary and important that we adjust our environmental protection measures,
standards, and policies as we move forward. The ultimate goal is to strike a balance
between the environment and development and maintain harmony between human
and nature.
We should also see that, although the targets of China’s ecological environment
governance system are clear, there are still different views on the relationship between
the what the reform aims at and what is currently in place, the combination of
top-level design and basic-level practices, comprehensive advancement, priorities in
system development, goals and objectives, improvement of governance capabilities,
the pace of the reform and relevant action plans. We must realize that ecological
civilization development and sustainable development are systematic projects which
require consensuses and participation of the whole society. We need to comprehensively deepen our understanding, overcome the constraints imposed by vested interests, solve theoretical and practical problems, keep the appropriate pace, promote
innovation and systematically advance the development of an ecological civilization.
2 Main Issues and Trends in Ecological Civilization
Development
1. Main issues
The task of building an ecological civilization, which is highly relevant to the longterm development of China, remains onerous. Land use planning needs to be further
improved. The spatial layout of economic activities is currently not in harmony with
the spatial layout of resources. A lot of agricultural and protected land is illegally