Harmony Between Humanity and Nature

In planning China's development, we should focus on the harmony between humanity and nature. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has strengthened the Party's overall leadership over ecological progress. It has placed ecological advancement in a prominent position in the overall work, and made a series of major strategic plans.

China has been following the principle that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets and persisting with a holistic and systematic approach to conserving and improving mountain, water, forest, farmland, grassland, and desert. China's ecological conservation systems have been improved, which has led to historic, transformative, and comprehensive changes in ecological and environmental protection and has brought China bluer skies, greener mountains, and cleaner waters.

The Chinese path to modernization is a process of  modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, and an essential requirement for promoting harmony between humanity and nature. China will advance the Beautiful China Initiative and take a holistic and systematic approach to the conservation and improvement of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, and deserts. China will carry out coordinated measures in industrial restructuring, pollution control, ecological conservation, and climate response. China will make concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development, and pursue economic growth. The country will also prioritize ecological protection, conserve resources, increase  efficiency, and pursue green and low-carbon development.

To realize the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature is a process which requires long-term and arduous efforts. Hence China is determined to take effective measures to pursue green development and promote harmony between humanity and nature.

China will accelerate the transition to a model of green development. It will implement a comprehensive conservation strategy, boost green and low-carbon industries, encourage green consumption, and promote green and low-carbon ways of production and life.

China will intensify pollution prevention and control. It will make further efforts to keep skies blue, waters clear, and lands clean, generally eliminating serious air pollution and black, malodorous water bodies in cities, and strengthening prevention and control of soil contamination at the source. The environmental infrastructure will be upgraded, and living environments in both urban and rural areas will be improved.

China will enhance diversity, stability, and sustainability in its ecosystems. Major projects for preserving and restoring key ecosystems will be carried out at a faster pace in priority areas. China will carry out major biodiversity protection projects, promote the natural regeneration of grasslands, forests, rivers, lakes, and wetlands, enforce the 10-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River, and improve the system of fallowing and crop rotation. It will also make efforts to prevent and treat harm caused by invasive alien species.

China will work actively and prudently toward the goals of reaching peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality. Based on its energy and resource endowment, China will advance initiatives to reach peak carbon emissions in a well-planned and phased way in line with the principle of building the new before discarding the old. It will further advance the energy revolution, and coal will be used in a cleaner and more efficient way. China will also speed up the planning and development of a system for new energy sources and get actively involved in global governance in response to climate change.