Our newspaper's comment: Incorporate environmental protection policies into the consistency assessment of macro policy orientations
The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and Promoting Chinese-Style Modernization" proposes to enhance the consistency of macro policy orientations and include both economic and non-economic policies into the consistency assessment of macro policy orientations.
In the Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year and this year's government work report, arrangements were made for "incorporating non-economic policies into the consistency assessment of macro policy orientations." The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China once again emphasized this, explaining that this is not only a key task in 2024, but also an important measure for my country to comprehensively deepen reforms in the future. This is a more detailed explanation of "consistency of macro policy orientations". The purpose is to further strengthen the coordination of non-economic policies and ensure that all policies must not only focus on a unified goal, but also work in the same direction. Form synergy to avoid "composition fallacy" caused by fragmentation of policy effects.
In the past, conflicts in macro policy orientations have occurred from time to time, and have also been reflected in the field of ecological environment. For example, when implementing relevant national policies in some places, it is easy to increase the number at a time, resulting in so-called "sports-style" implementation. Ecological and environmental protection, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality are all long-term goals, and long-term policy measures should be used. However, there have been some places that were too urgent, ignored objective laws, and took radical measures to shut down relevant enterprises within their jurisdiction. This is not conducive to local economic development, nor is it conducive to the green transformation of enterprises, and will also have an impact on people's livelihood.
Economic and social development is a systematic project, and its macro policies are also a complex system. Different policies may focus on different specific objects. However, whether at the formulation stage or the implementation stage, all policies should reflect consistency, that is, closely focusing on promoting Chinese-style modernization, the biggest political issue, and the primary task of high-quality development.
Chinese-style modernization is a modernization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously, and green development is the background of high-quality development. Including non-economic policies into the consistency assessment of macro policy orientations means that before introducing policies such as industry and environmental protection, they must use whether they are conducive to promoting high-quality development as a criterion to conduct comprehensive considerations and overall assessments to prevent policies."Fighting" between them deviates from the overall policy goal. For example, although blindly launching the "two high" projects will cause local GDP to grow rapidly in the short term, carbon emissions will also increase and energy consumption will also increase. This is in line with the country's development of new productive forces and the realization of "double carbon" goals. The requirements deviate from the requirements. Such policies must be resolutely corrected.
The ultra-low emission transformation of the steel industry can be said to be one of the typical representatives of the consistent orientation of environmental protection policies and macro policies. Statistics from the China Steel Association show that as of the end of 2023, the profit margin of enterprises that have completed ultra-low emission transformation is 2.6 times that of other companies. Compared with before the ultra-low emission transformation in 2018, PM in 10 cities with concentrated steel production capacity across the country2.5The average concentration dropped by 24%, which promoted significant improvements in ambient air quality in key regions and the country. At the same time, it has also boosted effective social investment by more than 600 billion yuan, driving the rapid growth of environmental protection and related industries. For example, ultra-low emissions require clean transportation to reach more than 80%, which has led to the rapid development of my country's new energy heavy trucks. In 2022, my country's sales volume of new energy heavy trucks ranks first in the world, with a year-on-year increase of 154%, mainly concentrated in major steel provinces.
The ultra-low emission transformation of the steel industry involves economic policies, transportation policies, industrial policies, science and technology policies, environmental protection policies, etc. The results achieved are also economic, social and environmental aspects, providing useful reference for other key industries.
The ecological environment is not only a complex, multi-dimensional and objective natural system, but also a social system involving many aspects and fields. The deeper the battle against pollution is, the stronger it is related to macro policies. The more we must pay attention to policy coordination and overall effects, and the more we must pay attention to the degree of synergy between various measures. Only by strengthening forward-looking thinking, overall planning, strategic layout, and overall advancement of reforms in various fields can we avoid each other's actions and mutual constraints, and enhance overall effectiveness through overall planning.
