After about ten years of exploration, the accounting of Gross Ecological Product (GEP) has become a prairie prairie, and is expected to become an important yardstick for measuring the effectiveness of a party's economic and social development and ecological and environmental protection.
"GEP accounting is a hot research topic at home and abroad, and it is also an important measure to establish and improve the value realization mechanism of ecological products and realize the modernization of the ecological environment governance system and governance capacity." said a relevant expert from the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
The research team led by Wang Jinnan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, has just completed the GEP accounting of Xing'an League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Xing'an League's ecological product family.
The calculation shows that the GEP of Xing'an League in 2020 is 471.87 billion yuan, accounting for about 8.2% of the GEP of the whole region (the GEP of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 2020 is 5,745.403 billion yuan), the GEP per unit area is 8.559 million yuan / square kilometer, and the per capita GEP is 333,000 yuan. per person, which are 1.4 times and 5.7 times the average water for the whole region and the country, respectively.
According to comparable price analysis, in 2020, the GEP of Hinggan League increased by 17.6% compared with 2015, and the GDP increased by 24% compared with 2015.
"Xing'an League has achieved double growth in the value of 'lucid waters and lush mountains' and 'gold and silver mountains' during the '13th Five-Year Plan' period," said Wang Jinnan.
Xing'an League is an important production base of agricultural and animal husbandry products in my country, and is recognized by the world as the "Golden Belt of Rice in Cold Regions", "Golden Belt of Corn Planting" and "Best Belt for Cattle Raising".
This study found that with the enhancement of the ecosystem's ability to provide services, the market share of rice and corn agricultural products brands in Xing'an League has steadily increased.
Xing'an League is rich in water resources, ranking second in the region, and is the "water tap" in the Northeast.
According to the research team, the study found that the value of flood regulation and water conservation in Hinggan League is relatively high, at 71.818 billion yuan and 56.407 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 15.22% and 11.95% of the GEP of the whole league.
Xing'an League has a natural secondary forest area in the southern foothills of the Greater Xing'an Mountains, known as the forest sea. The ecological carbon sink reaches 2/3 of its carbon emissions, and the ecological carbon sink value is 330 million yuan, which has a large carbon neutrality potential.
In addition, the value of cultural tourism services in the Xinggan League ecosystem in 2020 was 7.784 billion yuan, accounting for 1.65% of the league's GEP.
As a national winter training base for freestyle skiing aerial skills, Aershan is blessed with unique ice and snow resources, and the advantages of ice and snow ecological resources will become an important supporting point for the development of Xing'an League's ice and snow ecological industry.
In 2013, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and other organizations introduced the GEP accounting method for the first time in Kubuqi, Inner Mongolia. Measure and display the state of ecosystems and prepare for the next step in aligning with national economic statistics and accounting systems.
In August 2019, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Supporting Shenzhen to Build a Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" clearly stated that it is necessary to "explore and implement the ecosystem service value accounting system".
After that, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Supporting Zhejiang's High-quality Development and Construction of Demonstration Zones for Common Prosperity" published in June 2021 proposed to "explore and improve the application system of gross ecosystem product (GEP) accounting with Zhejiang characteristics"; 2022 The "Opinions of the State Council on Supporting Guizhou's Development of the Western Regions in the New Era" issued in January 2019 proposed to explore the inclusion of the total value of ecological products into the relevant performance evaluation system, and to implement the "dual assessment" of economic development and the total value of ecological products. .
So far, Zhejiang Province and Guizhou Province have issued their own GEP accounting technical specifications.
Qinghai, Hainan, Inner Mongolia and other provinces (districts and cities), 23 cities (prefectures and leagues) such as Shenzhen and Lishui, and more than 100 counties (cities and districts) such as Aershan and Chishui have launched GEP accounting pilot demonstrations.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has issued GEP accounting standards such as "Ecosystem Assessment: Technical Specifications for Accounting of Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP)", which has laid a working foundation for the implementation of GEP assessment.
Earlier this year, a research team led by Song Youtao, Dean of the School of Environment, Liaoning University, completed a GEP accounting study on the three northeastern provinces.
The research results show that the total GEP value of the three northeastern provinces in 2019 was 6.12 trillion yuan.
Among them, the adjustment service value is the highest, accounting for 67%; the material product value and cultural service value account for 22% and 11% respectively.
The per capita GEP of the three northeastern provinces is 59,000 yuan per person.
Song Youtao told the First Financial Reporter that through research and accounting, the project team also put forward relevant suggestions for the future development of the three northeastern provinces.
"The total GEP value of the three northeastern provinces in 2019 was 6.12 trillion yuan, 1.19 times the GDP." said Zhu Jinghai, chairman of the Liaoning Environmental Science Society.
This accounting result also gave people a new understanding of the old industrial base in the three northeastern provinces.
"The improvement and degradation of a region's ecosystem directly affects its ability to provide ecological products and services." Ouyang Zhiyun, director of the Eco-Environmental Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that GEP accounting can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of ecological protection.
The increase of GEP indicates that the ecological protection is effective; the decrease of GEP indicates that the ecosystem is degraded and destroyed.
Some experts told the first financial reporter that in the "14th Five-Year Plan" or for a longer period of time in the future, GEP is expected to become the vane of high-quality development of the country or region, and become a "baton" as important as GDP.
During the National Two Sessions this year, the Central Committee of the Jiusan Society submitted the "Proposal on Accelerating the Comprehensive Establishment of the GEP and GDP Dual Assessment System".
The proposal proposes to speed up the improvement of GEP evaluation technical guidelines and other related policies, clarify the scope of GEP accounting, formulate a classification list of ecological products, standardize the accounting methods for the value of ecological products, determine the indicator system for measuring the production value of ecosystems, and incorporate GEP into the national economic statistical accounting system.
Guide similar regions and ecosystems to establish unified and standardized accounting and evaluation standards, and provide a basis for GEP to be included in the performance assessment of local leaders.
The proposal also proposes to gradually promote the establishment of the dual assessment system of GEP and GDP from point to surface, strive to fully implement it during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and establish a system for the regular release of the results of the dual assessment of GEP and GDP.