Reform on the way to promote ecological progress

Yang Weimin outlined a reform plan on monitoring of ecological progress in Beijing on Thursday. [Photo/china.org.cn]

China is to publish details of a program on reforming the monitoring of ecological progress, a senior reform official said in Beijing on Thursday.

"The program will offer top-level design for directing ecological reforms," said Yang Weimin, vice-minister of the office at the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs and member of the Reform Task Force for the Promotion of Economic Development and Ecological Progress under the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform.

It will fill the vacuum in some systems concerning ecological protection, Yang added. He said for the first time ownership of national resources, the space planning system, environment management and the market system for ecological restoration will be established.

"To keep a stable economic development, China's mode should be changed with the adjustment and optimization of its institutional system. To achieve a green and low-carbon economy is an important direction for such transformation", said Yang.

As the second largest economy, worth $10 trillion, in the world, China embraces a promising future by turning itself into a green and low-carbon economy, he said.

The move is also a practical implementation of the landmark climate agreement, China-US Joint Announcement on Climate Change, reached last November in Beijing. In the agreement, China intends to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions around 2030 and to make best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2030.

The program will integrate and unify laws and regulations by different government departments and avoid overlapping responsibilities by departments. With the implementation of the program, "I believe that responsibilities of some government agencies will be adjusted," said Yang.

China's top leadership on Friday passed an overall program on reforming the ecological progress mechanism, which includes a number of key measures under the framework of "1+6".

"1" refers to the Integrated Reform Plan for Promoting Ecological Progress.

"6" refers to six specific plans, including the Provision Plan for Environmental Protection Supervision and Inspection, the Plan for Developing Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Networks, the Pilot Plan for End-of-Office Auditing for Officials Regarding Natural Resources Assets, the Interim Measures on the Accountability of Party and Government Officials for Ecological and Environmental Damage, the Pilot Plan for Preparing Balance Sheets for Natural Resource Assets, and the Pilot Plan for the Reform of the Compensation System for Ecological and Environmental Damage.

The main goal is to establish a systematic set of eight systems for promoting ecological progress by 2020.

These systems, being the pillars of the architecture of ecological development, are to improve the system of property rights for natural resource assets; establish a system for developing and protecting territorial space; establish a planning system for territorial space; improve the system for total resource management and resource conservation; improve the compensation system for resource consumption and ecological damage; establish an effective system for environmental governance; improve the market system for environmental governance and ecological conservation and improve the system of performance evaluation and accountability promoting ecological progress.