Expert Commentary Article No. 2 on the “Action Plan for Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy” | Deeply Implement the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy to Solidify the Resource Foundation for High-Quality Development

Conserving resources is a fundamental national policy of our country. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). The Plan firmly establishes a resource outlook centered on conservation, intensive use, and circular utilization, integrating resource conservation into every stage and sector of economic and social development. It systematically outlines the goals, tasks, and supporting measures for comprehensive conservation, providing an action guide for deeply implementing the comprehensive conservation strategy during the 15th Five-Year Plan period and accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.

I. Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy Is a Major Strategic Deployment Made by the CPC Central Committee

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China achieved positive results in conserving and intensively using resources. Energy consumption, water usage, and the area of construction land per unit of GDP all decreased significantly, and phased achievements were made in grain conservation and combating food waste. However, it must also be clearly recognized that China's per capita resource endowment is relatively insufficient, extensive resource utilization and losses/waste still exist in some sectors, and the mode of resource utilization has not yet fundamentally changed. The Plan adheres to a problem-oriented approach, making systematic arrangements for deeply implementing the comprehensive conservation strategy, fully demonstrating the high importance and strategic foresight attached by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to resource conservation efforts.

Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy Is an Inevitable Requirement for Safeguarding National Resource Security. Prioritizing conservation and reducing reliance on incremental resource inputs through higher resource-use efficiency are crucial pathways to enhancing resource security capabilities. The Plan sets safeguarding national resource security as an important goal, deploying measures such as promoting green exploration and mining of mineral resources, efficient and comprehensive utilization of key strategic minerals, and orderly utilization of renewable resources, thereby strengthening resource security capacity.

Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy Is an Important Support for Accelerating the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development. Energy and resource consumption are major sources of carbon emissions and pollutant discharge; conservation is a fundamental solution to reduce emissions at the source. The Plan insists on prioritizing energy conservation in the work of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality, using conservation as a guiding principle to optimize the energy structure and adjust the industrial structure, thus gaining greater leeway to achieve the carbon peak target on schedule.

Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy Is an Intrinsic Need for Promoting High-Quality Development. Resource-use efficiency is an important benchmark for measuring development quality and effectiveness; adhering to conservation and intensive use while improving quality and efficiency is the only path to transforming the development model and raising total factor productivity. The Plan sets reduction targets for intensity indicators such as energy consumption, water usage, and construction land use per unit of GDP, using improved resource-use efficiency to drive a shift in the development model and promote both effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in the economy.

The Plan sets its sights on 2030, clarifying the goals and requirements for comprehensive conservation. It makes overall arrangements around establishing a more robust conservation system, significantly improving resource-use efficiency, and further fostering a social ethos that champions conservation, linking these with specific indicators across various sectors to transform the principle of "conservation first" from an ideological requirement into actionable constraints that are monitorable, assessable, and traceable.

II. Coordinating and Promoting Various Forms of Resource Conservation and Intensive Use Is the Core Task of the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy

The Plan adheres to a systems-thinking approach, comprehensively incorporating energy, water, grain, land, minerals, and raw materials into its strategic framework, forming a task system that covers key areas and spans production and daily life. These tasks integrate upstream total-volume control with green design, midstream conservation and loss reduction with intensive use, and downstream recycling and regeneration, constructing a governance chain that covers the entire lifecycle of resource development and utilization, reflecting distinct characteristics of holistic planning and full-chain governance.

First, Deeply Advance Energy Conservation and Efficiency Improvement. Strengthen source-level oversight of energy conservation and carbon reduction, strictly enforce energy-saving reviews and carbon emission assessments for fixed-asset investment projects, and effectively manage high-energy-consuming and high-emission projects; focus on "one industry, one policy" energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrades in key industries, and promote energy conservation in buildings, transportation, public institutions, and other sectors. By 2030, energy consumption per unit of added value in large-scale industries will decrease by more than 10% compared to 2025, with energy savings exceeding 150 million tons of standard coal achieved through targeted energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrades in key industries.

Second, Strengthen Water Conservation and Efficient Use. Adhere to the principles of determining cities, land, population, and industries based on water availability, fully implement the rigid water-resource constraint system, and strictly control both total water usage and water-use intensity; focus on deep water-saving initiatives in agriculture, industry, and urban areas, incorporating non-conventional water into unified water-resource allocation. By 2030, the effective utilization coefficient of irrigation water in farmland will increase to 0.60, and water consumption per ten thousand yuan of industrial added value will decrease by 10% compared to 2025.

Third, Deepen Grain Conservation and Combat Food Waste. Uphold the philosophy that reducing losses through conservation equals increasing production; strengthen conservation and loss reduction during production and storage, and accelerate the construction of high-standard granaries; reduce losses during transportation and processing, vigorously develop multimodal grain transport, and encourage moderate processing; resolutely curb wastefulness in catering consumption, promote smaller portion sizes, prevent "full discounts encouraging bulk orders" from inducing excessive ordering, and establish long-term mechanisms for grain conservation and anti-food-waste efforts.

Fourth, Promote Land Conservation and Intensive Use. Adhere to strict total-volume control, revitalization of existing stock, structural optimization, and efficiency enhancement; firmly safeguard the red line for arable land protection, strictly manage urban development boundaries, and keep new construction land additions during the 15th Five-Year Plan period within 26 million mu; advance mixed land development, composite spatial utilization, and lawful, rational conversion of land uses; steadily carry out comprehensive land remediation across entire regions; and deepen and expand pilot programs for redeveloping inefficient land.

Fifth, Enhance the Level of Mineral Resource Development and Utilization. Adhere to innovation-led, conservation-intensified, and safety-assured approaches; comprehensively promote green exploration and green mine construction, ensuring that over 90% of licensed operating large mines and over 80% of medium-sized mines meet green-mine standards by 2030; strengthen comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, reinforcing incentive and restraint mechanisms for key indicators such as mining recovery rates, beneficiation recovery rates, and comprehensive utilization rates, with the comprehensive utilization rate of coexisting polymetallic ores expected to increase by 2–3 percentage points compared to 2025.

Sixth, Strengthen Raw Material Conservation and Recycling. Adhere to the principles of reduction, reuse, and resource recovery; widely implement green product design and strengthen governance against excessive packaging; deeply advance classified and graded utilization of bulk solid waste, vigorously promote recycling of "three new types" of solid waste and other materials; under the premise of ensuring zero import of solid waste, orderly proceed with importing and utilizing high-quality overseas recycled resources, and implement actions to upgrade the application of recycled materials. By 2030, annual utilization of bulk solid waste will reach approximately 4.5 billion tons.

Seventh, Cultivate a Social Ethos That Champions Conservation. Insist on leadership by public institutions, public participation, and social co-governance; strictly enforce requirements for Party and government organs to live frugally, and comprehensively build resource-conserving agencies; vigorously advocate simple, moderate, green, low-carbon lifestyles, promoting green travel, water and electricity conservation, participation in the "Clean Plate Campaign," and reduced use of disposable items as public habits; regularly conduct publicity and education campaigns on practicing thrift and opposing waste.

III. Strengthening Supporting Measures Is Key to Effectively Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy

The Plan strengthens support and guarantees across four areas: legal standards, policy support, regulatory enforcement, and technological innovation, coordinating institutional constraints with ethos cultivation to transform external conservation requirements into conscious actions embraced by the whole society.

First, Consolidate Fundamentals with Rule-of-Law Standards. Push for revisions to laws and regulations such as the Energy Conservation Law, the Circular Economy Promotion Law, and the Regulations on Energy Conservation in Public Institutions, aligning and implementing relevant legal requirements; deeply implement energy-efficiency and water-efficiency labeling systems; refine energy-, water-, and material-consumption standards for key industries, sectors, and products; strengthen metrological reviews of energy and carbon emissions; and use the strictest systems and most rigorous rule of law to define clear conservation bottom lines and establish benchmarks for conservation.

Second, Boost Momentum with Policy Incentives. Leverage the multiplier effect of government investment to support eligible project construction; make good use of price levers such as differentiated electricity tariffs and tiered water pricing to ensure that wasters pay while savers benefit; encourage financial instruments like green credit and green bonds to support resource-conservation projects, guiding social capital to participate in investment, construction, and operation, thus forming a diversified investment landscape featuring government guidance, market operation, and social participation.

Third, Ensure Implementation Through Regulatory Accountability. Make good use of assessment tools that reflect conservation requirements to hold all parties accountable for their duties, intensify regulatory enforcement, and rigorously investigate and punish disorderly development and resource wastage in accordance with laws and regulations; improve statistical survey systems and explore establishing an indicator system for resource-conservation and intensive use, ensuring that conservation outcomes are measurable and accountability is traceable.

Fourth, Expand Possibilities Through Technological Innovation. Incorporate resource-conservation technologies into relevant key special projects of the National Key R&D Program, concentrate on tackling common critical technologies, deepen cooperation between enterprises and universities/research institutes, accelerate the promotion and application of advanced, suitable technologies, and continuously expand the scope of resource conservation through technological progress.

The release of the Plan marks the entry of the comprehensive conservation strategy into a new phase of holistic advancement, which will further solidify the institutional foundation for comprehensive conservation, deepen the social ethos championing conservation, and elevate resource-use efficiency to a new level. This provides strong support for safeguarding national resource security, promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and advancing high-quality development, laying a solid resource foundation for fully building a modern socialist country. (Yuan Jianqin, Associate Researcher, Economic Forecasting Department, State Information Center, National Development and Reform Commission)

Source: National Platform for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Publicity