Full text: Report on China's economic, social development plan

8. Effectively promote ecological advancement

1) Intensifying institutional guarantees. We will introduce guidelines on speeding up ecological advancement and a policy document on better responding to climate change. We will carry out demonstrations for promoting ecological advancement. We will establish a sound mechanism for compensating for ecological damage. We will improve the system under which polluters pay for the pollution they cause and mineral exploiters compensate for their exploitation of mineral resources, and the system for holding responsible parties accountable for environmental damage and having them compensate for the damage they cause. We will enforce ecological red lines and an environmental credibility assessment system for enterprises.

2) Working hard to conserve energy and reduce emissions. We will intensify the responsibility and accountability system for meeting energy conservation and emissions reduction targets, and conduct assessments to control energy consumption and intensity. We will carry out key projects for conserving energy and reducing emissions; intensify efforts to conserve energy, reduce emissions, and enhance oversight in key areas such as industry, construction, transportation, and public institutions; launch an intensive campaign to get more than 10,000 enterprises to save energy and lower carbon emissions; and move faster to establish an online system to monitor energy consumption by major energy consumers. We will start implementing the top-runner system for energy efficiency and forcibly impose green building standards on the construction of buildings for public welfare and public buildings of 20,000 square meters or more. We will implement guidelines on accelerating development of the energy conservation and environmental protection industries. We will push forward the special science and technology action for energy conservation and emissions reduction. We will continue to get everyone to save energy and reduce emissions.

3) Energetically developing the circular economy. We will implement the Strategy and Near-term Action Plan for Developing the Circular Economy. We will build circular economy demonstration cities and counties, upgrade industrial parks to make their operations more circular, and more quickly make the recycling of renewable resources an industry. We will proceed with the trials of developing national demonstration centers for recovering mineral resources from urban waste and of recovering resources from kitchen waste and handling it safely, implement the project to develop the second group of 100 demonstration centers and 100 key enterprises that make comprehensive use of resources, and comprehensively utilize crop stalks in major areas that produce grain or cotton. We will bring order to mining and make it green. We will carry out pilot projects and demonstrations for seawater desalination.

4) Striving to improve the environment and ecosystem. We will intensify the implementation of the Action Plan for Preventing and Controlling Air Pollution, start by reducing PM10 and PM2.5 emissions, and strengthen coordination of air pollution prevention and control efforts with the focus on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. We will improve economic policies for upgrading refineries and refurbishing coal furnaces to ensure that flue gas is desulfurized, denitrified and dust free. We will continue to comprehensively improve the water environment in key water basins and areas, and formulate and implement a clean water action plan. We will strengthen control of soil pollution. We will speed up the development of urban sewage and garbage treatment facilities. We will protect and develop forest and grassland resources, and work to comprehensively control the sources of dust storms affecting Beijing and Tianjin, prevent karst areas from becoming stony deserts and improve the ecology of the Loess Plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and other major regions. We will comprehensively practice cleaner production.

5) Responding to climate change by all possible means. We will thoroughly carry out pilot programs and demonstrations to encourage low carbon growth in provinces, regions, cities, industrial parks, and communities. We will research ways to establish a national market for the trading of carbon emission rights and a statistical accounting system for greenhouse gas emissions, and become better able to respond to climate change. We will implement the national strategy for adjusting to climate change. We will take a constructive part in international negotiations on climate change and continue to engage in international exchanges and pragmatic cooperation on responding to climate change.