context: More efficient resource use will be imperative for the country’s decarbonisation and sustainable development and for cushioning against over-reliance on certain mineral imports. Here Xi is reminding officials that efficient resource use is an important pillar of development, one that will help to build self-reliance and realise his vision for forming an ecological civilisation.
Xi Jinping stressed the need for resource conservation when he presided over the 27th meeting of the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission on 6 Sep 2022. Xi’s remarks included
- persisting with the conservation of resources in development
- speeding up the fundamental transformation of resource usage
- promoting the aggregate management, scientific allocation, conservation and circular usage of resources
- improving usage efficiency for energy, water, food, land, minerals and raw materials
- resource conservation is a fundamental national policy
- it is a priority for ensuring resource security, promoting ecological civilisation establishment and high-quality development
- there should be a focus on
- resource conservation in key sectors such as energy, industry, construction and transportation
- leveraging scitech innovation
- promoting energy saving and carbon reductions in production
- enhancing people’s awareness of conservation
- promoting green and low-carbon lifestyles
- opposing waste and excessive consumption
- striving to form a culture of appreciation for conservation
- making use of market-oriented rules-based governance approaches
- speeding up the formation of resource pricing mechanisms that reflect their degree of scarcity, cost of ecological damage and cost of pollution
- improving standards for energy, water and material consumption for key industries and products
- balancing conservation, development and protection, local and overall, and short-term and long-term considerations
- adhering to ‘baseline thinking’ while
- preventing and defusing major resource risks
- considering the actual needs of economic and social development
- improving the new national system for research on key core technologies
- promoting market reform for the rural collective management of construction land