Expert Commentary Article 1 on the “Action Plan for Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy” | Accelerating the Implementation of the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy to Support a Comprehensive Green Transition in Economic and Social Development

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to prioritize conservation, implement a comprehensive conservation strategy, promote conservation initiatives across all sectors, and drive a fundamental transformation in how resources are utilized. 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"), which systematically deploys measures to deepen the implementation of the comprehensive conservation strategy during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The Plan sets out overarching requirements and key tasks for conserving energy, water, grain, land, minerals, and materials, holding significant importance for safeguarding national resource security, advancing ecological progress, supporting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and promoting high-quality growth.

I. The Action Plan for Implementing the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy Is of Great Significance

An Effective Pathway to Promote Carbon Reduction and Emission Cuts. Achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality on schedule requires both accelerating supply-side transformations such as developing non-fossil energy sources and advancing demand-side transitions like conserving and intensively using resources. Energy conservation, water conservation, grain conservation, land conservation, mineral conservation, and material conservation essentially reduce energy demand and incremental emissions at the source by cutting ineffective consumption and inefficient inputs. Promoting comprehensive conservation can coordinate synergistic efficiency gains across carbon reduction, pollution control, green expansion, and growth, thereby lowering the overall costs of the green and low-carbon transition. The Plan adheres to a dual approach of conservation and development, creating conditions and gaining space for supply-side transformation through demand-side reduction and efficiency improvements, thus fostering a dynamic balance and coordinated transition between resource supply and demand at a higher level.

An Important Guarantee for Advancing Ecological Progress. At present, China's ecological progress has entered a critical phase of promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development and achieving a qualitative shift in improving ecological and environmental quality, placing higher demands on conserving resources, protecting the ecological foundation, and enhancing environmental quality. Promoting comprehensive conservation means reducing the occupation and disturbance of ecological space caused by resource development and utilization, thereby creating better environmental quality and higher living standards. The Plan upholds the principles of prioritizing conservation and pursuing green development, strengthening policy guidance and institutional constraints for the intensive and economical use of resources. This will facilitate the green and low-carbon transformation of production and lifestyle patterns, promote continuous improvement in ecological and environmental quality, and provide strong support for accelerating the building of a Beautiful China and realizing harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.

A Strategic Measure to Support High-Quality Development. High-quality development is the process of transforming resource utilization from extensive and inefficient practices toward conservation, intensification, and efficiency. Currently, China faces tightening resource constraints alongside low utilization efficiency, making it unsustainable to continue relying on large-scale resource inputs to sustain growth. Comprehensive conservation does not simply mean curtailing legitimate demand; rather, it involves optimizing resource allocation and improving production methods to generate greater economic and social benefits at lower resource and environmental costs. The Plan integrates conservation priorities throughout all stages and sectors of economic and social development, driving deep coordination and aligned efforts between resource conservation and industrial upgrading, technological innovation, thereby enhancing total factor productivity, nurturing and expanding green productive forces, and solidifying developmental advantages for Chinese-style modernization.

II. Strengthening Full-Process Management to Promote Comprehensive, Scientific, and Systematic Conservation

Resource conservation is a systematic undertaking that spans the entire lifecycle—from resource exploration and production to circulation, consumption, and recycling—and implementing a comprehensive conservation strategy helps reduce full-lifecycle operating costs. At present, resource utilization in some sectors remains relatively extensive, with energy and water intensity per unit of GDP still lagging behind international advanced levels, indicating substantial potential for saving and reducing losses across the entire chain. The Plan establishes a full-lifecycle management philosophy, insisting on strict prevention at the source, rigorous oversight during processes, and circular utilization, shifting conservation efforts from isolated interventions to systematic policies.

. Source-side reduction is the most cost-effective and impactful form of conservation. Once projects and products are finalized, resource and energy consumption patterns tend to become entrenched, making later modifications costly and challenging. Therefore, preventive measures must be taken early in the process. The Plan emphasizes placing energy conservation at the forefront of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality efforts, enforcing rigid controls over total resource consumption, instituting energy-saving reviews and carbon emission assessments for fixed asset investment projects, conducting water-saving evaluations for planning and construction projects, and assessing the economical and intensive use of construction land. It also promotes green design and manufacturing to reduce resource inputs at the source and firmly curbs the blind launch of high-energy-consuming, high-emission, low-standard projects.

Strengthening Process Oversight. Resource consumption is most concentrated during production and distribution. Equipment efficiency, production organization, warehousing and transportation, and consumer behavior directly affect utilization efficiency, necessitating standard-driven, digitally empowered, and finely managed approaches to unlock conservation potential. The Plan specifies focusing on key sectors such as energy, industry, construction, and transportation, deeply advancing energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrades and updating energy-using equipment, while reinforcing full-process management for major energy- and water-consuming entities. It calls for deepening agricultural water conservation and efficiency improvements, industrial water conservation and emission reductions, urban water conservation and loss reduction, promoting whole-chain grain conservation and loss reduction, popularizing land-saving technologies and models, and enhancing recovery rates for mineral extraction and processing as well as overall utilization rates.

Enhancing Circular Regeneration. Circular regeneration is a crucial pathway to extending resource lifecycles and reducing dependence on virgin resources. Waste is simply a resource misplaced; we must establish seamless chains for collection, processing, and reuse. The Plan stresses accelerating the establishment of waste circular utilization systems, improving networks for collecting used materials, raising the level of recycled resource utilization for scrap steel, scrap nonferrous metals, retired power batteries, and decommissioned wind and photovoltaic equipment, developing and expanding the remanufacturing industry, promoting the recovery and utilization of waste heat, pressure, and gas, turning "urban mines" into a "second resource" that safeguards national resource security, and shifting resource utilization from "one-time consumption" to "circular regeneration."

III. Deepening Reform and Innovation to Energize the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development

Comprehensive conservation relies not only on managerial constraints but also on incentive mechanisms and technological empowerment. Currently, the resource sector still faces shortcomings such as poor transmission of price signals, insufficient market-based allocation of factors, and inadequate supply of advanced conservation technologies and equipment, leaving some localities and enterprises lacking strong intrinsic motivation for conservation. The Plan insists on seeking momentum through reform and benefits through innovation, striving to overcome deep-seated barriers hindering efficient resource utilization.

Deepening Reform. The method of resource allocation determines utilization efficiency. We must combine effective markets with a proactive government, optimize the allocation of resource and environmental factors, improve total volume management systems for energy and water consumption, establish mechanisms for fully transitioning from dual control of energy consumption to dual control of carbon emissions, and strengthen dual controls over total water usage and intensity. We should deepen price reforms for resource-based products, refine regulatory mechanisms such as resource taxes and environmental protection taxes, and improve trading markets for carbon emission rights, water rights, and pollution discharge rights, ensuring prices accurately reflect scarcity and ecological costs, thus establishing a clear orientation where savers benefit and wasters pay.

Promoting Innovation. Technological breakthroughs are the fundamental solution to resource constraints, while innovative models are vital for amplifying conservation benefits. We must focus on resource conservation, substitution, and circular utilization, intensify research on critical core technologies, develop new materials and products that are high-performance, long-lasting, easily recyclable, and reusable, and promote the deep application of digital and intelligent technologies in energy, water resource, and material management. We should expand contract-based energy management, contract-based water management, third-party environmental pollution treatment, and integrated waste recycling services, supporting specialized enterprises in providing systematic solutions, forming conservation pathways that are technically feasible, economically reasonable, and replicable.

Expanding Cooperation. Comprehensive conservation requires coordinated efforts among domestic regions and sectors, as well as international cooperation on green and low-carbon issues. We must continuously enhance domestic capabilities to secure energy and resources, stimulate domestic demand, strengthen cross-regional resource coordination and industrial collaboration, and promote joint construction and sharing of advanced conservation technologies, management models, and recycled resource recovery systems. We should reinforce international cooperation in key areas, actively participate in global green governance and standards-setting, deepen cooperation on energy conservation and carbon reduction, circular economy, and clean energy, expand opportunities for green trade and investment, and leverage higher-level opening-up to improve resource utilization efficiency and security assurance capabilities.

Conservation is both a strategy and an action. Implementing the Action Plan for the Comprehensive Conservation Strategy is a concrete manifestation of carrying out the CPC Central Committee's major decisions and deployments. We must apply a tenacious, nail-driving spirit to ensure the successful implementation of all tasks outlined in the Plan, fully integrating the principle of prioritizing conservation into every stage and sector of economic and social development, driving a fundamental transformation in resource utilization practices, and making new and greater contributions to accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development and building a modern society characterized by harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. (Li Zhong, Deputy Director and Researcher, Energy Research Institute, National Development and Reform Commission; Tian Zhiyu, Director and Researcher, Center for Sustainable Energy Development, Energy Research Institute, National Development and Reform Commission)

Source: National Platform for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Promotion