[State Council] Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment and Improvement of a Green, Low-carbon and Circular Economic System for Development

State Council's Guiding Opinions

on Accelerating the Establishment and Improvement of a Green, Low-carbon and Circular Economic System for Development  Guo Fa [2021] No. 4

  People's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, ministries and commissions under the State Council, and departments directly under the State Council:

  Establishing and improving the green, low-carbon and circular economic system and promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development are the basic measures to solve China's resource, environmental and ecological problems. To implement the arrangements of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and accelerate the establishment and improvement of a green, low-carbon and circular economic system, we hereby propose the following opinions.

  I. Overall requirements

  1. Guiding thought

  We should follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress and the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Plenary Sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Progress, earnestly implement the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, firmly implement the new development concepts, and implement green planning, green design, green investment, green construction, green production, green distribution, green living and green consumption in all aspects, so that our development is based on the efficient use of resources, strict protection of the ecological environment and effective control of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, we should promote high-quality development and high-level protection in a balanced way, and establish a sound economic system for green, low-carbon and circular development, so as to achieve the emission peak and carbon neutrality goals, and promote China's green development to a new level.

  2. Working principles

  Making breakthroughs in key areas. Making breakthroughs in key areas such as energy conservation, environmental protection, clean production and clean energy, integrating development with agriculture, manufacturing, services and information technology, and promoting green upgrading of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries as well as infrastructure.

  Adhering to innovation orientation. Further promoting technological innovation, model innovation and management innovation, accelerating the establishment of a market-oriented green technology innovation system, promoting new business models, and establishing an effective policy support system.

  Seeking improvement in stability. Integrating green transformation with economic development, technological progress, industrial continuity, stable employment and improvement of people's livelihood, and promoting it actively, prudently, and sustainably.

  Adhering to market orientation. Giving full play to the guiding role of the market, the principal role of enterprises, and the role of various market trading mechanisms in green transformation, so as to inject vitality into green development.

  3. Main goals

  By 2025, the industrial structure, energy structure and transportation structure are significantly improved, the proportion of green industries is increased significantly, the greening level of infrastructure is continuously improved, clean production continues to improve, the green transformation of production and living achieves remarkable results, the allocation of energy resources is more reasonable, the utilization efficiency is greatly improved, the total emission of major pollutants continues to decrease, the carbon intensity is significantly reduced, the ecological environment continues to improve, the market-oriented innovation systems for green technologies are improved, the systems of laws, regulations and policies become more effective and the production, distribution and consumption systems for green, low-carbon and circular development take shape. By 2035, the internal driving force for green development is increased significantly, the scale of green industries reaches a new level, the energy and resource utilization efficiency of key industries and key products reaches the international advanced level, the green production and living are widely adopted, the carbon emissions after its peak are stable with a slight decline, the ecological environment is fundamentally improved, and the goal of building a "Beautiful China" is basically achieved.

  II. Improving the production system for green, low-carbon and circular development

  4. Promoting green industrial upgrading Accelerating the green transformation of industries such as steel, petrochemical, chemical, non-ferrous, building materials, textile, paper making and leather. Promoting green product design and building green manufacturing system. Vigorously developing the remanufacturing industry and strengthening the certification and promotion of remanufactured products. Building bases for comprehensive utilization of resources and promoting comprehensive utilization of industrial solid wastes. Fully promoting clean production, and implementing mandatory clean production audit in accordance with laws in the "dual-super and dual-high energy consumption" industries. Improving the methods for identifying "small poorly managed polluting" enterprises, and implementing measures to close down and ban them, and integrating, relocating, improving and upgrading them. Accelerating the implementation of the permit system of pollutant discharge. Strengthening the management of hazardous wastes in industrial processes.

  5. Accelerating green agricultural development Encouraging the development of ecological planting and breeding, and strengthening the certification and management of green food and organic agricultural products. Developing ecological and circular agriculture, improving the utilization of livestock and poultry wastes as resources, promoting the comprehensive utilization of crop straw, and strengthening the treatment of agricultural film pollution. Strengthening the protection and improvement of the quality of cultivated land and comprehensively improving degraded land. Developing forestry circular economy and implementing the construction projects of products with forest ecological mark. Vigorously promoting water saving in agriculture and spreading efficient water-saving technologies. Promoting healthy aquaculture. Taking actions to reduce the use of pesticides and veterinary antimicrobials and to purify the environment of producing areas. Strengthening the unified planning of breeding waters and tidal flats in accordance with laws. Improving the management system for banning fishing in relevant waters. Further integrating agriculture with tourism, education, culture, health and other industries, and accelerating the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries.

  6. Improving the green development of the service sector Promoting green upgrading of commercial enterprises and developing a number of green circulation entities. Developing the sharing economy in areas such as travel and accommodation in an orderly manner, and standardizing the trading of idle resources. Accelerating the green transformation of the information service industry, building and upgrading large and medium-sized data centers and network computer rooms in a green way, and establishing green operation and maintenance systems. Promoting the green development of the conference and exhibition industry, guiding the formulation of green standards for the industry, and promoting the recycling of exhibition facilities. Promoting auto repair, decoration and other industries to use raw and auxiliary materials with low volatile organic compounds. Advocating that the hotel, catering and other industries do not actively provide disposable products.

  7. Expanding green and environmental protection industries Building a number of national demonstration bases for green industries, and promoting the formation of open, collaborative, and efficient innovation ecosystems. Accelerating the development of market entities, encouraging the establishment of companies with mixed ownership, and establishing a number of large green industrial groups; guiding small and medium-sized enterprises to focus on their main businesses to enhance their core competitiveness, and developing small and medium-sized enterprises that are "specialized, skilled, special and new". Implementing such models as energy performance contracting, water saving contracting and third-party environmental pollution management, as well as implementing environmental management result-oriented environmental trusteeship services. Further opening up competitive energy conservation and environmental protection businesses in the petroleum, chemical, power, natural gas and other sectors, and encouraging public institutions to provide energy trusteeship services. Timely revising the green industry directory to guide the development of the industry.

  8. Promoting the circular level of industrial parks and industrial clusters Working out development and construction plans for new industrial parks in a scientific way, carrying out environmental impact assessments in accordance with the law and regulations, tightening permit standards, improving the circular industrial chain, and promoting linking of industrial cycles. Promoting the recycling of existing industrial parks and industrial clusters, and promoting the joint construction and sharing of public facilities, the gradient utilization of energy, the recycling of resources, and the centralized and safe disposal of pollutants. Encouraging the construction of comprehensive energy projects in which electricity, heat, cold, gas and other energy sources are used in a coordinated manner. Encouraging chemical and other industrial parks to build facilities for centralized storage, pretreatment and disposal of hazardous wastes.

  9. Constructing green supply chains Encouraging enterprises to carry out green design, choose green materials, implement green purchasing, create green manufacturing process, promote green packaging, carry out green transportation and waste product recycling, so as to achieve green and environmental protection in the whole product cycle. Selecting about 100 enterprises with high enthusiasm, great social influence and strong driving role to launch a pilot green supply chain, and explore the establishment of green supply chain systems. Encouraging industry associations to improve the greening level of industry supply chain by developing norms, consulting services and self-discipline.

  III. Improving the circulation system for green, low-carbon and circular development

  10. Building green logistics Actively adjusting the transport structure, promoting multimodal transport of railway-waterway, highway-railway and highway-waterway, and speeding up the construction of special railway lines. Strengthening the organization and management of logistics and transportation, accelerating the construction and information sharing of relevant public information platforms, and developing drop and pull transport and joint distribution. Promoting green and low-carbon means of transport, phasing out updated or transformed old vehicles and vessels, and giving priority to the use of new or clean energy vehicles in port and airport services, urban logistics and distribution, and postal and express delivery services; strengthening efforts to promote the demonstration and application of green vessels and promoting standardization of inland vessels. Speeding up the construction of power facilities at ports, and supporting airports in the construction and application of alternative equipment for aircrafts' auxiliary power units. Supporting logistics enterprises in building digital operation platforms, encouraging the development of intelligent storage and transportation, and promoting the establishment of standardized tray recycling and sharing systems.

  11. Strengthening the recycling of renewable resources Promoting the integration of garbage sorting and recycling and recycling of renewable resources, and encouraging local governments to establish regional trading centers for renewable resources. Accelerating the implementation of the extended producer responsibility system and guiding production enterprises to establish reverse logistics recycling systems. Encouraging enterprises to adopt modern information technology to organically combine online and offline waste recycling, developing new business models, building leading enterprises, and enhancing the overall competitiveness of the industry. Improving the recycling and disposal system of waste electrical appliances and promoting typical recycling modes and practices. Accelerating the establishment of systems for recycling waste materials, strengthening the recycling of waste paper, plastics, tires, metal, glass and other renewable resources, and increasing the output and recycling rate of resources.

  12. Establishing green trade systems Actively optimizing the trade structure, vigorously developing trade in high-quality green products with high added value, and strictly controlling the export of products with high pollution and energy consumption. Strengthening international cooperation on green standards, actively leading and participating in the formulation of relevant international standards, promoting conformity assessment cooperation and mutual recognition mechanisms, and linking green trade rules with import and export policies. Deepening cooperation on the green "Belt and Road Initiative" and expanding cooperation on technology, equipment and services in energy conservation, environmental protection and clean energy.

  IV. Improving the consumption system for green, low-carbon and circular development

  13. Promoting consumption of green products Step up the government's green purchasing efforts, expand the chaperoning scope of green products, and gradually extend the green chaperoning system to state-owned enterprises. Strengthening guidance on the purchase of green products by enterprises and residents, and encouraging local governments to promote green consumption through subsidies and bonus points. Promoting the establishment of green product sales zones on e-commerce platforms. Strengthening management of certification of green products and services, and improving the credit supervision mechanism of certification bodies. Promoting green power certificate trading and leading the whole society to increase green electricity consumption. Cracking down on the behavior of falsely marking green products, and incorporating relevant information such as administrative punishment into the national enterprise credit information disclosure system.

  14. Advocating a green and low-carbon lifestyle Practicing strict economy and resolutely avoiding food waste. Promoting the classification, reduction and recycling of household waste in accordance with local conditions, and carrying out publicity, training and effectiveness evaluation. Making solid progress in the plastic pollution control. Promoting the treatment of excessive packaging, and encouraging producers and operators to comply with mandatory standards for restricting excessive packaging of commodities. Improving the intelligent level of the transportation system and actively guiding green travel. Carrying out patriotic health campaigns, improving the dirty, disorderly and bad environment and making it more livable. Launching green living creation activities.

  IV. Accelerating green upgrading of infrastructure

  15. Promoting green and low-carbon energy systems Giving top priority to energy conservation and improving control over both the total and intensity of energy consumption. Increasing the proportion of renewable energy used, vigorously promoting the development of wind power and photovoltaic power generation, and developing hydropower, geothermal energy, ocean energy, hydrogen energy, biomass energy, and solar-thermal power generation according to local conditions. Accelerating research, development and promotion of large-capacity energy storage technologies, and improving the aggregation and transmission capabilities of power grids. Increasing the supply of clean energy in rural areas and promoting the development of biomass energy in rural areas. Promoting the clean and efficient development, transformation and utilization of coal-fired power, and increasing the proportion of high-capacity, high-parameter and low-pollution coal-fired power units in installed coal-fired power plants. Actively developing clean combined heat and power central heating in counties in northern China and steadily promoting biomass coupled heating. Strictly controlling the increase in installed-capacity of coal-fired plants. Improving energy transmission and distribution efficiency. Carrying out plans to build and upgrade urban and rural power distribution networks, and promoting the upgrading and reconstruction of rural power grids. Speeding up the construction and interconnection of natural gas infrastructure. Conducting experiments and demonstrations of CO2 capture, utilization and storage.

  16. Promoting the upgrading of urban environmental infrastructure Promoting the full coverage of urban sewage pipe network. Promoting the integration of urban domestic sewage collection and treatment facilities, speeding up the construction of facilities for the disposal of harmless and recycled sludge, deploying sewage recycling facilities in accordance with local conditions, and basically eliminating black and odorous water in cities. Speeding up the construction of urban household garbage treatment facilities, promoting the generation of electricity through household garbage incineration, and reducing the disposal of household garbage in landfills. Strengthening the capacity for centralized disposal of hazardous waste, improving the level of information and intelligent supervision, and strictly implementing the business license management system. Improving the capacity for emergency treatment of medical waste. Using and disposing of kitchen waste in a recycling and harmless way. Promoting the construction of large desalination facilities in coastal cities where water is scarce.

  17. Promoting the green development of transport infrastructure Integrating the concept of ecological protection into the whole process of transport infrastructure planning, construction, operation and maintenance, making intensive use of land and other resources, reasonably avoiding spaces of national land with important ecological functions, and actively building green highways, railways, waterways, ports and airports. Strengthening the construction of supporting infrastructure for charging electricity and hydrogenating for new energy vehicles. Actively promoting the application of warm mix asphalt, intelligent ventilation, auxiliary power replacement and energy-saving lamps, noise reduction barriers and other energy-saving and environment-friendly advanced technologies and products. and strengthening the comprehensive utilization of waste resources in engineering construction to promote the resource utilization of waste pavement, asphalt, dredged soil and other materials as well as construction waste.

  18. Improving the living environment in urban and rural areas: Implementing the concept of green development for relevant spatial planning, coordinating urban development and security, optimizing spatial layout, reasonably determining the intensity of development, and encouraging cities to leave blank space and increase green space; establishing an evaluation system for "Beautiful City" and carrying out a pilot project for "Beautiful City" construction; enhancing the urban flood control and drainage capabilities; launching a campaign to create green communities, vigorously developing green buildings, establishing a unified identification system for green buildings, and promoting the greening of community infrastructure and the energy-saving renovation of existing buildings in combination with the renovation of old urban communities; establishing an evaluation system for rural construction to strengthen weak links in rural construction; accelerating the efforts to improve the living environment, and promoting the improvement of latrines, domestic waste treatment and sewage treatment, improvement of village appearance, rural greening and beautification in rural areas; and continuing to renovate clean heating, old and dilapidated houses in rural areas to create a clean and beautiful village environment.

  VI. Building a market-oriented green technology innovation system

  19. Encouraging the research and development of green and low-carbon technologies: Implementing green technology innovation research activities, and arranging a number of forward-looking, strategic and disruptive scientific and technological projects focusing on energy saving, environmental protection, clean production and clean energy, etc.; cultivating a batch of innovation base platforms such as national green technology innovation centers and national science and technology resource sharing service platforms; strengthening the leading role of enterprises in innovation; supporting enterprises to integrate the forces of universities, scientific research institutes, and industrial parks to establish a market-oriented green technology innovation consortium; and encouraging enterprises to lead or participate in green technology R&D projects supported by financial funds as well as green technology innovation projects with clear market orientation

  20. Accelerating the transformation of scientific achievements: Actively making use of the first piece (set) of major technological equipment policy to support the application of green technologies; giving full play to the role of national guiding fund for the conversion of scientific and technological achievements, and strengthening guidance from venture capital funds and other funds, to support the transformation and application of green technological innovations; supporting enterprises, universities and research institutions, etc. to establish green technology innovation project incubators, innovation and entrepreneurship bases. timely releasing catalogues for promoting green technologies and accelerating the promotion and application of advanced and mature technologies; and further promoting the development of green technology trading centers.

  VII. Improving the system of laws, regulations and policies

  21. Strengthening the support of laws and regulations: Promoting the improvement of laws and regulations on promoting green design, strengthening clean production, improving the efficiency of resource utilization, developing a circular economy, strictly controlling pollution, promoting the development of green industries, expanding green consumption, making environmental information public and addressing climate change; strengthening the supervision over law enforcement, intensifying investigation into and accountability of illegal acts, and strengthening coordination between administrative law enforcement organs and supervisory and judicial organs.

  22. Improving the green pricing mechanism: Improving sewage treatment charging policy, setting reasonable standards for sewage treatment charging and improving the mechanism for dynamic adjustment of standards in accordance with the principle of covering the operation costs of sewage treatment facilities and sludge treatment and disposal costs and making a reasonable profit; establishing and improving the domestic waste treatment charging system according to the principle of "the producer pays". Different regions can implement differentiated management such as classified pricing, metering and charging according to the local actual situation; improving the environment-friendly electricity pricing policy, promoting comprehensive reform of agricultural water price, and continuing to implement the tiered pricing system for electricity, gas and water for residential use.

  23. Increasing fiscal and tax support: Continuing to use government funds and budgetary investment to support environmental infrastructure, strengthen weak links, develop green and environmental industries, make efficient use of energy, and recycle resources, etc.; continuing to implement preferential policies on income tax and value-added tax for energy saving, water conservation, environmental protection and comprehensive utilization of resources and for contracted energy management and third-party treatment of environmental pollution; and doing a good job in piloting the collection of resource taxes and the reform of water resource fees.

  24. Vigorously developing green finance: Developing green credit and green direct financing, and increasing efforts to evaluate the performance of financial institutions in green finance; unifying standards for green bonds and establishing rating standards for green bonds; developing green insurance and giving full play to the role of the premium rate adjustment mechanism; supporting eligible green enterprises to go public for financing; supporting financial institutions and relevant enterprises to carry out green financing in the international market; promoting international convergence of green financial standards and advancing the two-way opening of green financial markets in an orderly manner; and promoting climate investment and financing.

  25. Improving green standards, green certification system and statistical monitoring system: Carrying out the top-level design and systematic planning of the green standard system, to form a comprehensive and systematic green standard system; accelerating the development of institutions supporting standardization; speeding up the development of a green product certification system and cultivating a number of professional green certification bodies; strengthening statistics and monitoring of energy saving, environmental protection, clean production and clean energy, improving relevant systems, and strengthening the sharing of statistical information.

  26. Cultivating green trading market mechanism: Further improving the trading mechanisms of emission rights, energy rights, water rights, carbon emission rights, etc., to reduce transaction costs and improve operational efficiency; accelerating the establishment of initial distribution, paid use, market transaction, dispute settlement, supporting service and other systems, and doing a good job in coordination of green ownership transactions and related targets and indicators.

  VIII. Seriously do a good job in organization and implementation

  27. Doing a good job in implementation: Relevant departments in all regions should fully understand the importance and urgency of establishing and improving a green, low-carbon and circular economic system for development, take it as an important part of high-quality development, further consolidate its responsibilities, strengthen supervision over its implementation, and ensure that all tasks are fulfilled both in quality and quantity. All regions should study and propose specific measures in light of their local conditions, and put more energy in implementing them to ensure that they are fully implemented.

  28. Strengthening overall planning and coordination: The relevant departments of the State Council should strengthen cooperation and form a working force. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, should strengthen overall planning, coordination, supervision and guidance, properly arrange the annual key work, timely summarize the good experience and models of all regions and relevant departments, explore the preparation of annual green, low-carbon and circular development reports, and timely report major developments to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

  29. Deepening international cooperation: Coordinating domestic and international situations; strengthening the policy communication, technical exchange, project cooperation, talent training, etc. with various countries and regions  around the words in the field of green, low-carbon and circular development; actively participating in and leading global climate governance; effectively improving China's capacity and level of promoting international green, low-carbon and circular development; and making positive contributions to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

  30. Creating a good atmosphere: All kinds of news media should tell the story the story of China's green, low-carbon and circular development, vigorously publicize the remarkable achievements, actively promote advanced examples, timely expose the negative examples of ecological damage, environmental pollution, serious waste of resources, and illegal high-pollution and energy-consuming projects, so as to create a good atmosphere for green, low-carbon and circular development.

State Council 

February 2, 2021