Environment-Friendly Society

It refers to the social form of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, that is, the whole society adopts production modes, lifestyles, and consumption modes that are conducive to environmental protection, and establishes a benign interactive relationship between people and the environment. In March 2005, Hu Jintao put forward the goal of building an environment-friendly society for the first time at the Central Forum on Population, Resources and Environment. The 5th Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee held in October 2005 formally identified the construction of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society as a strategic task for the mid- and long-term plan of national economic and social development. Building an environment-friendly society requires that economic and social development in all aspects conforms to the laws of ecology, developing in a direction that is conducive to maintaining a good eco-environment, and applying eco-environmental protection ideas and methods to promote comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable development of the economy and society. Environmentally friendly economic development mode, green political system, environmental cultural values, and green technology are the basic elements of an environment-friendly society, as well as the basic approaches and measures to build an environment-friendly society. The concept of environment-friendly society, rapidly elevated to such a high strategic position, has its profound historical inevitability. Resource and environmental issues have become the bottleneck constraints in the process of building an overall well-off society and modernization. This is the socio-economic foundation of the concept of an environment-friendly society; the scientific concept of development has become the basic program and principle for guiding China's economic and social development. Implementing the scientific development concept requires that the actual work has a banner, a goal, and a grasp. This is the political foundation of the concept of an environment-friendly society; the concept of an environment-friendly society is an inevitable result of the evolution of the international society’s environmental protection strategy and the progress of sustainable development practices. This is the awareness foundation of the concept of an environment-friendly society.

Environment-friendly economic development mode is the core of building an environment-friendly society. Green political systems, such as a comprehensively coordinated and sustainable scientific development concept, a comprehensive concept of political achievements, and an integrated environmental and economic decision-making mechanism, are the highest institutional guarantee for building an environment-friendly society. Environmental culture and ecological civilization are the value foundation of an environment-friendly society, and green technology that points to abundant, clean and sustainable use of resources is the technical support of an environment-friendly society. Building an environment-friendly society is an inevitable requirement for the full implementation of the “Scientific Outlook on Development”, an important guarantee for achieving the grand goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way, and an important measure for safeguarding national security and improving China's overall national strength, which is conducive to promoting steady and rapid economic development in China.