Why did the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference add the "environmental resources circle"

  China News Weekly reporter/Zhang Xinyu

  Published in the 1078th issue of "China News Weekly" magazine on February 6, 2023

  On January 18, the list of members of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was announced, and "environmental and resource circles" newly appeared in the list.

This is the first time that the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference has added a new sector since the Eighth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference added "economic circles" in 1993.

  According to the list, the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference has a total of 34 sectors, with a total of 2,172 members. Among them, the environment and resources sector has 85 members, which is one of the 34 sectors with a large number of members.

  In addition, the local CPPCC has also made corresponding adjustments to the sector settings. The list of members of the new CPPCC announced by 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government has added "environmental resources sector" or "resources and environment sector".

  Several interviewed experts told China News Weekly that the establishment of the environmental resources sector not only conforms to my country's new understanding of environmental resources, but is also an inevitable measure to achieve the dual carbon goals and ensure farmland and energy security.

Members come from many fields

  The preparatory work for the establishment of an "environmental and resource circle" by the CPPCC National Committee has already begun in 2020.

  Tong Jinnan, a professor of the Department of Earth Biology, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), is a member of the new environment and resources circle of the 14th CPPCC National Committee. He told China News Weekly that in 2020, the Population, Resources and Environment Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee More than 40 members have been added, and he is one of them. One of the purposes of the new members of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee is to prepare for the establishment of the environmental resources sector.

Subsequently, "Actively promoting the follow-up work of adding resource and environment sectors" was written into the 2020 work summary of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

  Among the 85 environmental and resources members of the CPPCC National Committee, many members were re-elected. They were previously scattered in other fields, such as science and technology, agriculture, and Jiusan Society.

What these committee members have in common is that almost all of them have submitted proposals related to environmental resources. For example, Tong Jinnan, as a member of the science and technology circles of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, submitted the first proposal related to the environmental protection of the Han River. Several proposals related to ecological environment governance have also been submitted.

  According to "China News Weekly", the backgrounds of the 85 members of the environmental resources industry cover ecological environment, natural resources, water conservancy and water affairs, urban planning, ocean, forestry, geology, chemistry, paleontology, architecture, meteorology, transportation, law and other fields .

  More than 40% of the members of the environmental and resource circles are officials with backgrounds in the above-mentioned fields, including Huang Runqiu, minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Zhang Jianhua, director of the National Energy Administration, Ma Jianhua, director of the Yangtze River Water Conservancy Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources, and the Ministry of Natural Resources. He Guangshun, director of the Department of Marine Strategic Planning and Economics, Ye Min, director of the Fujian Provincial Department of Natural Resources, and Yu Guodong, director of the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, and others.

  More than 30% of the 85 committee members are experts and scholars with backgrounds in the above fields, including Fang Jingyun, President of Yunnan University, Wu Jian, Vice President of Zhejiang University, Zhang Ganlin, Director of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Geographic Science and Resource Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ge Quansheng, the director of the Institute, etc., also includes several academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

  In addition, about 20% of the members are from energy and chemical companies, including Lu Tiezhong, chairman of China Nuclear Power, Li Fanrong, chairman of Sinochem, Wang Dongjin, chairman of CNOOC, Qian Zhimin, chairman of State Power Investment Corporation, Dai Houliang, chairman of PetroChina, and director of Huaneng Group. Chang Wen Shugang, Chairman of State Grid Xin Baoan, Chairman of China Rare Earth Group Ao Hong, etc.

  Liu Xutao, a professor at the Central Party School (National School of Administration), pointed out in an interview with China News Weekly that most of the 85 members of the CPPCC in the field of environmental resources have rich experience in related fields, some in academic research, some in In practice, this will enable them to better perform their duties of participating in and discussing state affairs in the field of environmental resources.

  Zhang Weichen, a researcher at the China Academy of Natural Resources Economics, told China News Weekly that many members of the environmental and resource circles are working on the front line, and they can make more reasonable suggestions. "It is even possible to achieve an effect, that is, during the meeting , some problems can be solved, and the work can be implemented faster."

  Tong Jinnan said that as a geologist, he has been paying more attention to environmental issues after becoming a member of the CPPCC National Committee. In the past, he often discussed environmental issues from the perspective of geology in group discussions of members of the CPPCC National Committee.

In his future performance of duties, he will focus on how to achieve a balance between environmental governance and economic and social development, "For example, I once talked about a problem in a group discussion. The current river and lake governance has turned many river beaches and river beaches into rocky beaches. , Concrete road, it seems that the environment has improved, but the creatures in the mudflats can no longer live. This is not ecological protection, but a kind of ecological destruction. This is also one of the issues I will pay attention to in the future.”

The new sector is a timely move for the development of the times

  In the opinion of many interviewed experts, the addition of the environmental and resource sector to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is a timely move in line with the development of the current era.

  Wang Yukai, a professor at the Central Party School (National School of Administration), told China News Weekly that the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference set up an environmental resource circle, which shows that the country attaches great importance to environmental resources. "This has a lot to do with the transformation of China's economic development mode. In For quite a long period of time, my country has focused on economic growth based on scale and quantity, and then to realize the transformation to quality and efficiency, the protection of environmental resources has become extremely important." Wang Yukai believes that the reform and opening up to today, environmental resources have been highly valued is the reason inevitable trend.

  Wang Yukai said that the establishment of the environmental resources sector shows that my country's awareness of environmental resources has reached a new level.

In the early days of reform and opening up, everyone was still unaware of the seriousness of environmental damage and excessive consumption of resources. At present, both the top decision-makers and the public in our country have already stepped up their understanding of the importance and value of resources and the environment.

  How to adapt to the sublimation of cognition requires efforts from all aspects.

For example, we have strengthened the institutional setting of environmental resources, established the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Natural Resources, centralized the functions of environmental protection and resources that were scattered in various departments in the past, and strengthened the leadership of the environment and resources from the organizational structure of government departments.

  Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the government functions have added the requirement of "environmental protection" from the previous "macro-control, market supervision, public service, and social management", and the construction of ecological civilization has been included in the "five-in-one" overall national strategic layout.

The CPPCC National Committee has newly added the environmental and resource sector to adapt to this trend.

  In Zhang Weichen's view, the establishment of the environmental resources industry is also a task. "From the perspective of international and domestic situations, whether it is carbon peaking, carbon neutrality, or sticking to the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land and ensuring energy security, in order to complete these tasks, The CPPCC needs to set up such a sector."

  The Population, Resources and Environment Committee of the CPPCC National Committee was established in March 1998. It is one of the nine special committees under the leadership of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and the Chairman's Meeting.

Zhang Weichen said that over the years, the Committee on Population, Resources and Environment has realized that people in the field of environment and resources are scattered in different sectors, resulting in scattered policy recommendations, so they have strongly promoted the establishment of an environmental and resource sector.

Since then, these CPPCC members have been able to speak more concentratedly and perform their duties more effectively.

Adjustment and optimization of the CPPCC sector

  In fact, the sectors of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have been adjusted many times, including adding sectors and renaming some sectors.

The establishment of local CPPCC sectors is basically based on the national CPPCC.

  In March 1988, during the Seventeenth Standing Committee Meeting of the Sixth CPPCC National Committee, the term "sectors" appeared for the first time.

Prior to this, the organizational setting of the CPPCC National Committee has always been expressed by "participating units".

In March 2004, the Second Session of the Tenth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference passed the Amendment to the Constitution of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. For the first time, the Constitution of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference officially refers to all participating units of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference by "sectors".

  The Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference canceled the category of "cooperatives" and added the category of "sports".

The Sixth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference added two sectors: "All-China Friendship of Taiwan Compatriots" and "Compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao".

The 7th CPPCC National Committee has 31 sectors, and a total of 32 sectors after the "China Association for Science and Technology" was added during the session.

The Eighth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference divided "Hong Kong and Macao compatriots" into "Hong Kong compatriots" and "Macao compatriots", and added "economic circles".

The Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adjusted the names of five sectors, among which "foreign friendship groups" were changed to "foreign friendship circles", "social relief and welfare organizations" were changed to "social welfare circles", "ethnic minorities" were changed to " Minority circles", "Hong Kong compatriots" were changed to "specially invited people from Hong Kong", and "Macao compatriots" were changed to "specially invited people from Macau".

The Tenth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference changed the names of two sectors, "agriculture and forestry sector" to "agricultural sector", and "social welfare sector" to "social welfare and social security sector".

  Liu Xutao said that at the beginning of the founding of New China, the CPPCC was mainly composed of parties, groups, regions, ethnic groups, and religions. Constantly adjust.

  The documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also reflect the importance attached to the adjustment and optimization of the CPPCC.

In 2006, the "Opinions on Strengthening the Work of the People's Political Consultative Conference" issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China defined for the first time the unique connotation of the CPPCC's own construction by highlighting sectoral characteristics.

In 2015, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's "Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Socialist Consultative Democracy" proposed that "when the conditions are ripe, the CPPCC sector should be properly adjusted."

In 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's "Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Work of the People's Political Consultative Conference in the New Era" once again proposed to "optimize the establishment of sectors, enhance the representativeness of sectors, and better reflect the wishes and demands of all walks of life."

  In addition to the addition of environmental and resource circles, the adjustment of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also included the merger of the "Chinese Communist Youth League" and the "All-China Youth Federation" into the "Chinese Communist Youth League and the All-China Youth League". Federation" a category.

  Liu Xutao pointed out that the adjustment of the CPPCC sector is carried out according to the needs of the country's political, economic, social and other aspects of development. Some use industry as the boundary, and some use professional as the boundary. To further play the functions of political consultation, democratic supervision and participation in the discussion and administration of state affairs.

  However, he also pointed out that it is normal for CPPCC members to "cross-sector" when performing their duties, and advocated that CPPCC members carry out "cross-sector" activities. Research, proposals and suggestions, etc., "Actually, the sector is more about building a platform for political consultation, participation in and discussion of state affairs, which has the characteristics of openness."

  "China News Weekly" Issue 4, 2023

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