Realizing the dialectical unity of development and protection | Ecological environment | Dialectical unity
A few days ago, a press conference in Jiangsu Province announced the ecological environment status of Jiangsu in 2022: while GDP has reached the level of 12 trillion yuan, the annual average concentration of PM_2.5 has achieved a "nine consecutive drops" since 2013, marking the best level of ecological environment quality in Jiangsu since the beginning of the century.
Jiangsu is an economically developed province, undertaking the glorious mission of being the first to achieve socialist modernization. In recent years, Jiangsu has firmly established the concept that green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as gold and silver. The economy continues to grow steadily, and fundamental changes have taken place in ecological environment protection. The synergy between high-quality development and high-level protection has enlightening implications for Jiangsu's practice.
A good ecological environment is an important criterion for testing the high-quality development of a region's economy and society, and it is also an important way to achieve high-quality development. How to correctly grasp the relationship between ecological environment protection and economic development, and achieve a win-win situation? Jiangsu's approach is straightforward, achieving effective decoupling between economic growth and pollution emissions. On the one hand, efforts should be made to optimize and adjust the industrial structure, strictly adhere to the threshold of environmental impact assessment, and resolutely curb the blind development of "two highs and one low" projects; On the other hand, we will solidly promote the ultra-low emission transformation of key industries such as thermal power, steel, and cement, and carry out clean production transformation of key enterprises. Economic growth and pollution emissions are in stark opposition here, with no room for reconciliation.
Dedicated to seeking the greatest common divisor for environmental, economic, and social benefits, it is a major tool for Jiangsu to coordinate high-quality development and high-level protection. In the face of environmental problems faced by enterprises and grassroots, the ecological and environmental department in Jiangsu Province does not simply exercise the power to say "no", but tries to find ways to say "how to do it". Only by finding a way and telling the grassroots how to do it can we solve the problem. In Jiangsu, this is not only an attitude towards facing difficulties, but also an effective working method, which has accumulated into many institutional achievements. For example, there are 12 convenient services for air pollution control and 23 measures for protecting enterprise property rights. Jiangsu also has mechanisms such as "Enterprise Environmental Protection Reception Day" to turn problems into issues and help enterprises solve pollution control problems. It is not difficult to see that Jiangsu's practices of serving local areas, enterprises, people's livelihoods, and eliminating bottlenecks have become strong support for high-quality development, which is the greatest common denominator.
The dialectical unity between economic development and ecological environment protection is not simply a one plus one approach, nor is it a combination of different aspects. Instead, it requires systematic promotion, protection in development, and development in protection. Jiangsu has also taken many innovative measures in these areas. They are accelerating the transition from pollution prevention and control to a balance between pollution prevention and ecological protection, promoting the steady improvement of ecosystem diversity, stability, and sustainability. The Jiangsu Province Ecological Space Control Regional Plan strictly protects 22.49% of the land area in the province, effectively safeguarding the ecological "stock". Implement major projects for the protection and restoration of important ecosystems, innovate the construction of "ecological islands" pilot zones, establish and improve mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products and ecological compensation systems. Jiangsu also regards the construction of ecological civilization as an important part of the governance system and governance capacity building, with both governance measures and efforts to improve governance capacity. These are all vivid manifestations of dialectical thinking in the construction of ecological civilization.
Chinese path to modernization is a kind of modernization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously. The practice in Jiangsu is inspiring. Not only Jiangsu Province, but also other provinces, regions, and cities should coordinate the relationship between economic development and ecological protection construction. This is a practical requirement for building a socialist modernized strong country and a mission entrusted to us by history.