Wei Junliang: energy saving and emission reduction need to slow down the pace of growth

A report of the National Development and Reform Commission on July 29 was shocking. According to the report entitled “Barometer for the Completion of Energy-Saving Targets by Region in First Half of 2011”, the country’s energy-saving and emission-reduction status is still severe and there is a partial deterioration.

Among the 30 provincial-level units (excluding Tibet), more than half of the energy-saving and emission-reduction projects are very serious or severe, accounting for nearly 60% of the national output. Compared with the first quarter, the five provinces of Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong and Guangxi have seen their energy conservation and emission reductions deteriorate. For the entire period of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, a total of 16 provinces were rated as Level 1 or Level 2 warnings, of which Henan’s warning level rose sharply from Level 3 to Level 1. Most of the provinces that have produced trillions of dollars in energy-saving emission reductions are in a serious situation.

As a key assessment indicator for energy conservation and emission reduction, the unit GDP energy consumption debuted in the Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. After strong interventions by power cuts and restrictions throughout the country, the 11th Five-Year Plan has barely been achieved. However, the start of the 12th Five-Year Plan was only more than half a year, and the situation of energy-saving and emission-reduction became worse again. On the one hand, GDP is leaping forward, while on the other, energy saving and emission reduction are struggling. How to make economic growth truly benefit the people is a major challenge that the Chinese government must face in the future. It is also the starting point and destination of structural adjustment.

There is no doubt that the GDP competition for local officials seeking to promote is still the main obstacle to energy conservation and emission reduction, and the dislocation of economic growth and livelihood improvement. Over the past 15 years, almost all provinces have surpassed the national level in terms of economic growth. However, residents’ consumer spending has continued to be substantially lower than the national GDP growth rate. Since most of the high-energy-consuming projects are heavily invested and have contributed to short-term GDP, the local government has imposed restrictions on the surface, but it has been strongly supported. In particular, at a time when the economic growth is slowing down, the local governments are also taking the name of maintaining growth and are aggressively promoting energy-intensive projects. However, such projects have been blindly duplicated and the construction has been outstanding. The public has not benefited much but has frequently suffered from the rapid deterioration of the surrounding ecological environment.

Although the leading groups responsible for energy conservation and emission reduction have been set up in all regions, the specific implementation still mainly depends on the environmental protection department and lacks an independent third party supervision agency. Because of the direct leadership of the local government, the environmental protection department can hardly do a fair, timely, and objective “detection, supervision, and sanctions”. The problem of being both a “referee” and an “athlete” is very prominent. No wonder the environmental protection department often does not act. Of course, corruption is also one of the main reasons. Due to the red line of policy, local government officials often benefit from the approval and approval of related projects.

From this we can see that in order to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction, the first and foremost is to break through the "growth for promotion" and "stabilize and grow" habits and return to the basic idea of ​​"developing and benefiting people". To this end, it is necessary to resolutely terminate the disorderly GDP competition and replace it with a scientific, multi-indicator compatible and transparent official performance evaluation mechanism. We must adjust the “point assessment” that is quicker than a one-sided point to the establishment of a consensus interval, and allow for swinging up and down. Interval evaluation." During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the target for GDP will be adjusted from 7% to 6%-8%, and 5% and 9% will be set as targets for regulation and control. In the medium and long term, it is necessary to build a credible and open unemployment index for urban residents in light of China’s national conditions as an important assessment indicator in the evaluation system of local officials.

Secondly, local major projects must be launched to use the hearing system. Representatives from local residents who have been publicly elected should participate in the hearing. The hearings should be broadcast live to prevent government departments from dereliction of duty or abuse of authority to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of the people are not infringed. In addition, the testing and evaluation of energy-saving emission reduction targets for enterprises or projects should be made by independent third-party agencies, and the content of inspections should be disclosed as soon as possible. For violations of illegal projects or malicious emissions, we should learn from the experience of developed countries, increase penalties, increase the cost of non-compliance, make it a taboo.

The history of economic development at home and abroad has eloquently proved that high-speed economic growth and energy-saving and emission reduction are the relations between "fish" and "**" and cannot be combined. However, "development aimed at improving people's livelihood" has gradually become the consensus of all countries. For the purpose of promotion and maintenance of stability, it is inevitable that the reckless GDP competition will give rise to real improvement in people's livelihood. In the face of severe energy conservation and emission reduction, the pace of growth must be slower, just as high-speed trains must be slower. China does not need high blood and poisonous growth!