The two sessions pay attention to | The green Yangtze River draws a long scroll of high-quality development

At the end of last year, the Changjinghuang high-speed railway, which connects the "historical building" Tengwang Pavilion, China's largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, Bai Juyi's Fuliang County, which sells tea, and Huangshan, the "world's first strange mountain", was put into operation, opening the "acceleration" of development in many places. The Changjing-Huang high-speed railway is roughly parallel to the Yangtze River and has become another new channel in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has been established as a major national strategy, and since 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to conduct research, and presided over four symposiums on the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Nanchang to promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Time and again, the pulse orientation has been exchanged for rapid changes. The river flows from west to east, the spring breeze blows green along the Yangtze River, and the 11 provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) along the river are writing a long scroll of high-quality development in the thick greenery.

High-level protection: reproducing the Yangtze River's "clear water flowing eastward"

Promoting the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is inseparable from the high-quality ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin.

However, this economic belt, which spans the three major plates of China's eastern, central and western regions and involves 1/3 of the number of provinces in the country, has ignored the ecological environment, and once appeared in the dilemma of "chemical encirclement of the river", direct sewage discharge, no trace of water elves, threatened water sources, and most inferior V. state-controlled sections.

To break through the predicament, it is necessary to unswervingly adhere to the principle of joint efforts to carry out large-scale protection, not large-scale development, and make greater efforts to provide high-level protection. In recent years, all localities along the Yangtze River have drawn ecological red lines, continuously strengthened the comprehensive management of the ecological environment, continued to strengthen pollution control in key areas, coordinated water resources, water environment and water ecology, and firmly promoted the reproduction of the beautiful picture of the Yangtze River's "ten-year fishing ban" and "a river with clear water flowing eastward".

Chongqing has continued to strengthen the ecological protection and restoration of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and completed the pilot project of ecological protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grasses in Chongqing, and the task of "10-year fishing ban" in the Yangtze River. Yu Guodong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director of the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, said that as of 2023, the water quality of the Chongqing section of the main stream of the Yangtze River has maintained Class II for seven consecutive years, and the proportion of excellent water quality in 74 state-controlled sections has reached 100%, the best level since the "14th Five-Year Plan".

Sichuan Province, which is an important ecological barrier and a major water conservation area in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, holds quarterly meetings to analyze the water environment situation of the liaison units of river and lake chiefs to promote the implementation of the duties of river and lake chiefs at all levels; it has issued a plan for improving water quality year by year, strengthened water quality standards in the dry season and reduced the peak of pollution in the flood season; and concentrated efforts to carry out five special actions of "making up for shortcomings, strengthening parks, rectifying outlets, treating total phosphorus, and eliminating black and odorous waters", promoted the implementation of 49 projects for the prevention and control of total phosphorus pollution in the Yangtze River, and achieved long-term governance and long-term cleanliness of 105 urban black and odorous water bodies.

"With the standard of being able to make fine wine, we have fully implemented river basin management and protection with greater determination, stronger strength and more practical measures, and tried every possible way to protect the water quality of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Zhong Chenglin, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, said.

In order to be a good "gatekeeper of the Yangtze River into the sea", Yan Bo, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, said that Shanghai has strengthened the comprehensive management and control of the ecological environment, efficiently completed the adjustment of the section of the national examination, carried out water quality evaluation and assessment, strengthened the total control of water pollutant discharge, fully implemented the pollutant discharge permit system, promoted the paid use and trading of pollutant discharge rights, paid attention to the rectification of outstanding problems in the water ecological environment, and promoted the protection and restoration of the ecological environment system.

Jiangsu Province has continuously promoted the full completion of the annual goals and tasks of the "4+1" project, such as urban sewage and garbage treatment, chemical pollution control, agricultural non-point source pollution control, ship pollution control and tailings pond pollution control. Jiang Wei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, said: "In the past five years, Jiangsu's GDP has grown at an average annual rate of about 5.5% and crossed 4 trillion yuan in a row, while the emission reduction of major pollutants has exceeded the targets and tasks set by the state, the proportion of water quality in the national examination section is better than that of Class III and the proportion of excellent seawater in coastal waters has increased by 30.4 percentage points and 42.6 percentage points, and the water quality of the Jiangsu section of the main stream of the Yangtze River has remained stable for five consecutive years. ”

The deputies and committee members were pleased to see that over the years, phased results have been achieved in the ecological and environmental protection of the Yangtze River basin in various localities.

Regional Green Synergy: From "Drinking Yangtze River Water" to "Protecting the Beauty of the Yangtze River"

"I live at the head of the Yangtze River, and you live at the end of the Yangtze River. Every day, I don't see you, and I drink the water of the Yangtze River. The beautiful poem expresses endless thoughts, and now the coordinated green development of the region has become a powerful synergy for the co-governance and co-protection of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Regarding the coordinated development of the region, Yu Guodong said that since the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle has become a national strategy, Chongqing Municipality has joined hands with Sichuan Province to strengthen "upstream awareness" and share "upstream responsibility", and systematically promote the construction of a solid ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River as a major political task related to the long-term and overall situation, and actively build a general pattern of ecological protection in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

As a result, Chengdu and Chongqing have coordinated the implementation of the "ten-year fishing ban" on the Yangtze River, coordinated the ecological restoration of abandoned mines along the main and tributaries of the Yangtze River, coordinated legislation to strengthen the protection of the water ecological environment in the Jialing River Basin, coordinated the establishment of a horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in the basin, coordinated the unification of heavy pollution weather warning and emergency response standards, and coordinated the issuance of the implementation rules of the negative list for the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt......

Zhong Chenglin said: "We have also included key regional work in key areas such as the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle into the Outline of the Strategic Plan for the Construction of Beautiful Sichuan (2022-2035), which has become a planning guide and scientific guidance to guide all parts of the province to accelerate the local practice of building a beautiful Sichuan. ”

It is precisely because of the coordinated protection that the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the integration of another national strategy, the Yangtze River Delta, have achieved ecological co-governance and development sharing.

Shanghai has given full play to its leading role in deepening the cooperation of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Delta region. Yan Bo said that in 2021, Shanghai took the lead in setting up a comprehensive Yangtze River Delta regional ecological and environmental protection cooperation group, and incorporated the key tasks of Yangtze River protection such as cross-border river and lake governance, water source protection, and water ecological restoration into the annual work of Yangtze River Delta integration cooperation; Establish a joint decision-making, joint protection and integrated management and control mechanism for cross-border drinking water sources in the demonstration area, jointly control the safety risks of the ecological environment of drinking water sources, and steadily improve the quality of the ecological environment of water sources, and jointly sign the "Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening the Joint Prevention and Control of Ecological and Environmental Protection of Drinking Water Sources in the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone......

Jiang Wei said that in order to promote the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, Jiangsu Province has strengthened the construction of urban and rural organic waste treatment and utilization demonstration zones in the Taihu Lake area, clarified the construction task list and project list, coordinated the research on the Yangtze River Delta regional integrated emission trading system, promoted the construction of the ecological compensation mechanism in the Taihu Lake Basin, and formed a cooperation plan for the ecological protection and compensation mechanism of the Taipu River in the Taihu Lake Basin.

In terms of coordinated protection, this year's proposal of the Central Committee of the Zhi Gong Party stated that efforts should be made to promote the overall protection and restoration of the Yangtze River Basin, continuously improve and stabilize the quality of the water environment, and promote the coordinated governance mechanism of the Yangtze River Basin in depth to build the Yangtze River ecological community at a higher level.

The greening of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the improvement of the integrated ecology of the Yangtze River Delta reflect that the synergies in the Yangtze River Economic Belt are playing a positive role and creating dazzling sparks, accumulating strength for high-quality development.

High-quality development: Gradually unleash new advantages and new momentum for green transformation

The Yangtze River Economic Belt, which accounts for half of the country's population and total economic output, is also one of the most resource-rich and innovative regions in China.

Zhongtian green fine steel project is a demonstration project in Jiangsu Province to implement the two national strategies of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and to promote the transfer of steel production capacity from the Yangtze River to the coast. At present, Zhongtian Iron and Steel Group has invested nearly 10 billion yuan in environmental protection to achieve zero discharge of wastewater and ultra-low emission of waste gas.

Nowadays, in the eight years since the implementation of the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, it is not uncommon to see stories like the Zhongtian Green Fine Steel Project to promote the two-way transformation of environmental protection advantages and economic development advantages.

In Chongqing, "with the help of a high-quality ecological environment, we have accelerated the green and low-carbon transformation and increased efficiency, created a total of 12 national green parks, 133 green factories, a total of 47.53 million tons of carbon market transactions, and made solid progress in the construction of the global green finance reform and innovation pilot zone, with a balance of more than 680 billion yuan in green loans and 497 climate investment and financing projects." Yu Guodong said.

In Shanghai, Yan Bo told reporters that there are 489 municipal-level industrial structure adjustment projects in the city, 102 municipal-level green factories and 12 green supply chain management enterprises have been selected and released, and the number of new energy vehicles has reached 1.288 million, ranking first in the world.

In 2023, Sichuan's GDP will exceed 6 trillion yuan, ranking first in the western region, and green and low-carbon advantageous industries will develop rapidly, with an annual growth of 19.8%. According to Zhong Chenglin, Sichuan Province has built a low-carbon energy system with hydropower as the pillar, and the energy consumption per unit of GDP has dropped by 17.4%, and the world's largest hydro-solar complementary project, the Kola photovoltaic power station, is connected to the grid for power generation, and the province's installed clean energy capacity has reached 110 million kilowatts, accounting for 86.7%, of which the installed capacity of hydropower is 97.59 million kilowatts, ranking first in the country.

The 11 provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) along the Yangtze River focus on high-quality development, focus on industrial transformation and upgrading, continue to give full play to the advantages of synergy and linkage, and gradually release new advantages and new momentum for green transformation. The mighty Yangtze River, the integration of mountains and rivers, the co-prosperity of urban and rural areas, and the consolidation of the ecological foundation will surely paint a magnificent picture of the new era.