"We should promote green development and build rural small and medium-sized towns." Recently, He Keng, deputy director of the Finance and Economic Commission of the 11th National People's Congress and former deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics, shared his views on carbon neutrality and high-quality development at the international conference on carbon neutrality and high-quality development hosted by Beijing International Ecological Economy Promotion Association. He Keng believes that green development is an important component of high-quality development. In the process of green development, in addition to a few large cities as bright as the Big Dipper, small and medium-sized towns like the Little Dipper are also needed. The scattered rural towns not only provide residents with a view of mountains and water, but also enable surplus labor in various regions to work nearby without leaving their homes.
In He Keng's view, climate change is a challenge for all humanity and requires the joint participation and cooperation of countries around the world. At the same time, climate change is not a single energy conversion issue, but a problem that runs through the entire process of production and life. It requires both energy conservation and emission reduction in the production process, as well as promoting green consumption during consumption.
In recent years, China has done a lot of work to address climate change, and the improvement of the ecological environment has achieved significant results. The proposal of the "dual carbon" goal has also pointed out the direction for future development. However, to promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, we should not wait or rush.
“Because China is still a developing country, achieving modernization is a very difficult task. To advance modernization construction, the first step is to develop the economy. Developing the economy cannot be achieved without consuming energy or producing carbon dioxide. We must find ways to solve this contradiction. At the same time, there is also a contradiction between people's need for a better life and insufficient and unbalanced development, "He Keng said, In order to solve these contradictions, China proposes to promote high-quality development.
In the view of He Keng, high-quality development includes the following aspects.
The first is comprehensive development. As a large country with a population of 1.4 billion, China's industrial structure must be reasonable and comprehensive, and the main technologies of each major industry must be sovereign and independent. Only in this way can China ensure national security and not be "choked" by other countries.
The second is green development. To solve environmental problems and achieve the "dual carbon" goal, it is necessary to adhere to green development. For the sake of everyone's health, we must also adhere to green development. To achieve green development, in addition to seeking energy transformation and using clean energy, it is also necessary to develop rural small and medium-sized towns.
He Keng believes that excessive emphasis should not be placed on building an international metropolis. In addition to several large cities as bright as the Big Dipper, China also needs to build scattered "small and medium-sized towns", not only providing residents with a view of mountains and water, but also enabling surplus labor in various regions to work nearby without leaving their homes.
The third is intensive development. Compared with the extensive development of production relying solely on increasing the input of material factors, intensive development pays more attention to expanding reproduction relying on science and technology, improving the productivity of all factors, and striving to increase output on the basis of scientific and technological innovation, modern management and high-quality workers without increasing the input of material, capital and human resources.
The fourth is balanced development, that is, narrowing the development gap between the East and the West, as well as the gap between urban and rural development, and building all regions and places in the country in a beautiful and effective manner. “Through these measures, we can further improve the level of high-quality development and steadily and orderly promote the implementation of the ‘dual carbon' goal.”
