The National Development and Reform Commission held a special press conference on the construction of ecological civilization. Liu Dechun, Director of the Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection, Wang Xintong, Deputy Director of the Department of Regional Revitalization, and Zhang Hua, Deputy Director of the Department of Rural Economy jointly attended the conference, introducing the progress and achievements of ecological civilization construction since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and discussing the progress, achievements and goals of carbon peak carbon neutralization, energy conservation and energy efficiency improvement, environmental infrastructure construction Resources conservation and recycling, progress of ecological protection compensation mechanism, investment of ecological compensation funds, legislative progress of the Ecological Protection Compensation Ordinance, integrated management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, ecological engineering construction and other issues were answered.

The quality and stability of the ecosystem improved steadily. Over the past decade, we have adhered to the integrated protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, built a natural reserve system with national parks as the main body, promoted the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, and deeply implemented large-scale land greening actions. We have completed a total of 960 million mu of afforestation, accounting for one fourth of global artificial afforestation. We have made great efforts to strengthen the stability of the ecosystem and the protection of biodiversity, and build a solid ecological security barrier. In 2021, China’s forest coverage rate will reach 24.02%, and the forest stock will reach 19.493 billion cubic meters, becoming the country with the largest growth in forest resources in the world; The comprehensive vegetation coverage of grassland reached 50.32%, and the wetland protection rate reached 52.65%; The area of nature reserves accounts for 18% of the land area.

The green and low-carbon transformation of energy has achieved remarkable results. Over the past decade, we have deeply promoted the energy revolution, based on the basic national conditions of coal, strengthened the clean and efficient use of coal, actively developed non fossil energy, and continued to deepen the reform of the power system. In 2021, China’s clean energy consumption will account for 25.5%, an increase of 11 percentage points over 2012; The proportion of coal consumption decreased to 56%, 12.5 percentage points lower than that in 2012; The installed capacity of wind power generation has increased by about 12 times over 2012, and the new energy power generation has exceeded 1 trillion kWh for the first time. At present, the installed capacity of renewable energy in China has exceeded 1.1 billion kilowatts, and the installed capacity of hydropower, wind power, solar power and biomass power all ranks first in the world.

Source: NDRC