Accelerate the Development of Green Productive Forces

On January 31, 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during a collective study session of the Politburo of the 20th Central Committee: "Green development is the hallmark of high-quality development; new quality productive forces are inherently green productive forces." This important new assertion breaks through previous cognition and traditional understanding of productive forces, puts forward new insights into the characteristics and laws of the development of productive forces in the New Era, profoundly elucidates the complementary intrinsic connection between green productive forces and new quality productive forces, enriches the new category of the concept of productive forces, clarifies the new direction of development of productive forces, expands the new path of development of productive forces, and embodies the theoretical innovation of the Marxist theory of productive forces in the context and practice of Chinese-path modernization. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC incorporated "focusing on building a Beautiful China, accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, improving the ecological environment governance system, promoting eco-priority, conservation, intensive, green, and low-carbon development, and promoting harmony between humanity and nature" into the "seven focal points" [1]1 The "seven focal points" (七个聚焦) are the seven key areas of reform identified at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, covering economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization, national security, and Party building. of the overall goal of further comprehensively deepening reform, thereby defining the "green" characteristics and markers of Chinese-path modernization in the New Era.

2024年1月31日，习近平总书记在二十届中央政治局第十一次集体学习时发表讲话强调：“绿色发展是高质量发展的底色，新质生产力本身就是绿色生产力。”这一重要的新论断，突破了对生产力的既有认知和传统理解，提出对新时代生产力发展特征和规律的新见解，深刻阐释了绿色生产力与新质生产力相辅相成的内在联系，丰富了生产力概念的新范畴，明确了生产力发展的新方向，拓展了生产力发展的新路径，体现了马克思主义生产力理论在中国式现代化情景和实践中的理论创新。党的二十届三中全会将“聚焦建设美丽中国，加快经济社会发展全面绿色转型，健全生态环境治理体系，推进生态优先、节约集约、绿色低碳发展，促进人与自然和谐共生”纳入进一步全面深化改革总目标的“七个聚焦”，明确了新时代中国式现代化的“绿色”特征和标识。

Further deeply understanding and grasping the connotation and value implications of "green productive forces," encouraging all regions to actively seek support points, leverage points, and entry points on the new track of green productive forces development, take the lead in planning and positioning, accelerate into the "fast lane" of comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation, cultivate new competitive advantages, accumulate new development momentum, and win the initiative in development—these are inherent requirements of promoting the construction of a new pattern of Chinese-path modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature.

进一步深刻理解把握“绿色生产力”的内涵和价值意蕴，促进各地区在绿色生产力发展新赛道积极寻找支撑点、发力点、切入点，率先布局谋篇，加速驶入全面绿色低碳转型“快车道”，培育竞争新优势、蓄积发展新动能、赢得发展主动权，是推动构建人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化新格局的题中之义。

Deeply Understand the Connotation and Requirements of Green Productive Forces

深刻理解绿色生产力的内涵与要求

"Green productive forces" take green innovation as the source, environmental protection as the prerequisite, and high-quality development as the goal; they are the key to the adaptation between relations of production and productive forces under the new situation. Green productive forces represent the enrichment and expansion of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the innovative development of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, and are organically integrated with Xi Jinping's Economic Thought.

“绿色生产力”以绿色创新为源泉，以环境保护为前提，以高质量发展为目标，是新形势下生产关系与生产力相适应的关键之处。绿色生产力是习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的丰富和拓展，是习近平生态文明思想的创新发展，与习近平经济思想有机贯通。

First, green productive forces incorporate ecology, resources, environment, and other factors into the category of productive forces, embedding the important connotations of "green base color" and "innovation nature," implying the change and optimization of the traditional production function. This requires that in production and development, the ecological environment be regarded as a core element, increasing the proportion of means of labor with higher "green content," promoting the effective input, innovative allocation, and optimized combination of green production factors, achieving the green innovation of productive forces elements, forming a leap in productive forces led by a new round of green technological revolution, and by raising the "green content," empowering the "gold content."

首先，绿色生产力将生态、资源、环境等要素纳入生产力范畴之中，镶嵌着“绿色底色”与“创新本色”的重要内涵，意味着传统生产函数的改变和优化。这就要求在生产和发展中将生态环境作为核心要素，提高“含绿量”更高的劳动资料使用比例，促进绿色生产要素的有效投入、创新配置、优化组合，实现生产力要素的绿色化革新，形成新一轮绿色技术革命引领的生产力跃迁形态，通过提升“含绿量”，赋能“含金量”。

Second, through technological innovation, efficiency improvement, and development transformation, green productive forces achieve a win-win situation for economic growth and environmental protection, implying the transformation of the traditional mode of economic growth. This requires abandoning the short-term pursuit of performance goals that exchange "economic growth" for "sacrificing the ecological environment," reversing the development model that relies on resource consumption, extensive expansion, and additional investment to exchange "quantity" for "increment," comprehensively evaluating the energy resource consumption costs and ecological environmental impacts of growth and development from the dual dimensions of "full life cycle" and "total factor productivity," forcing "three high" enterprises to exit the market in an orderly manner, realizing the paradigm shift from factor quantity input-driven to green development-driven growth, promoting the decoupling and disconnection of economic growth from environmental pollution, steadily crossing the inflection point of the "Environmental Kuznets Curve" [2]2 The Environmental Kuznets Curve is a hypothesized relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation, suggesting that environmental damage first increases with income and then decreases after a turning point., and unlocking key links of high-quality development.

其次，绿色生产力通过技术创新、效率提升、发展转型，实现经济增长与环境保护的双赢，意味着传统经济增长方式的转变。这就要求摒弃以“牺牲生态环境”换“经济增长”的短期“显绩”目标追求行为，扭转依赖资源消耗、粗放扩张、追加投入以“数量”换“增量”的发展模式，从“全生命周期”和“全要素生产率”双重维度，综合评价增长和发展的能源资源消耗成本和生态环境影响，倒逼“三高”企业有序退出市场，实现从要素数量投入驱动向绿色发展驱动的增长范式转变，推动经济增长与环境污染走向脱钩和熔断，稳步跨越“环境库兹涅茨曲线”拐点，打通高质量发展的关键环节。

Finally, green productive forces promote the removal of obstacles to the realization of the value of ecological products, enhance the capacity to transform the value of ecological products, implying a substantial increase in the supply and consumption of green and low-carbon ecological products. This requires, through technology innovation-driven, ecological allocation of factors, and ecological upgrading of industries, promoting the two-way development of industrial ecologization and ecological industrialization, gradually extending to mid- and high-end links, transforming ecological resources into new supplies of ecological products and ecological services with high green value-added and high market premium that the market recognizes, accepts, and pursues, "incubating" industries through ecology, converting ecological advantages into economic and development advantages, building a new green, low-carbon, and circular economic system, boosting green market confidence, stimulating green market vitality, forming an atmosphere of "pursuing green and thriving through innovation" [3]3 "Pursuing green and thriving through innovation" (逐绿而行、向新而兴) is a four-character slogan meaning to follow the path of green development and achieve prosperity through innovation., and promoting explosive growth in the supply of green ecological products and green consumption across society.

最后，绿色生产力推动破除生态产品价值实现的障碍，提升生态产品价值转化能力，意味着绿色低碳生态产品供给和消费的大幅度增加。这就要求通过科技创新驱动、要素生态化配置、产业生态化升级，推动产业生态化和生态产业化双向发展，并逐渐向中高端环节延伸，将生态资源变成市场认可、接受、追逐的高绿色附加值、高市场溢价叠加的生态产品、生态服务新供给，通过生态“孵化”产业，将生态优势转化为经济优势和发展优势，构建绿色低碳循环新型经济体系，提振绿色市场信心，激发绿色市场活力，形成“逐绿而行、向新而兴”的氛围，促进全社会绿色生态产品供给和绿色消费爆发式增长。

The Necessity and Importance of Developing Green Productive Forces

发展绿色生产力的必要性和重要性

Green productive forces embody the greening trend and low-carbon transformation of the economic and social development of the entire country, marking a new height and new stage in the development of human social productive forces.

绿色生产力体现了整个国家经济社会发展的绿色化走向和低碳化转型，标志着人类社会生产力发展的新高度和新阶段。

First, green productive forces are the fundamental requirement for achieving Chinese-path modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, "We must not only create more material wealth and cultural-ethical wealth to meet the people's ever-growing needs for a better life, but also provide more high-quality ecological products to meet the people's ever-growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment." By developing green productive forces, assisting in the achievement of the "dual carbon" goals [4]4 The "dual carbon" goals refer to China's commitment to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060., simultaneously advancing material civilization and ecological civilization construction, gradually expanding the supply of high-quality ecological products, and creating more abundant, more inclusive, and more sustainable green welfare, can we better demonstrate the prominent feature of "green development" of Chinese-path modernization.

首先，绿色生产力是实现人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化的根本要求。习近平总书记指出，“既要创造更多物质财富和精神财富以满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要，也要提供更多优质生态产品以满足人民日益增长的优美生态环境需要”。通过发展绿色生产力，助力“双碳”目标实现，同步推进物质文明和生态文明建设，逐渐扩大优质生态产品供给，创造出更丰足、更普惠、更可持续的绿色福祉，才能更好地彰显中国式现代化“绿色发展”的显著特征。

Second, green productive forces are the universal requirement for achieving high-quality development. Green and low-carbon are key links and distinctive markers of high-quality development. By developing green productive forces, comprehensively reducing the resource and environmental costs of development, accelerating the transition to green and low-carbon development, properly handling the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, and accelerating the realization of reasonable growth in quantity and effective improvement in quality, can we gradually shift from "having or not," "enough or not," "sufficient or not" to "excellent or not," "beautiful or not," and "high or not."

其次，绿色生产力是实现高质量发展的普遍要求。绿色低碳是实现高质量发展的关键环节和鲜明底色。通过发展绿色生产力，全面降低发展的资源环境代价，加快绿色低碳发展转型，处理好高质量发展与高水平保护的关系，加快实现量的合理增长和质的有效提升，才能逐步从“有没有”“够不够”“足不足”转向“优不优”“美不美”“高不高”。

Finally, developing green productive forces is an inevitable requirement for China to make contributions to global green development. By developing green productive forces, accelerating the innovation, promotion, and application of green and low-carbon technologies, promoting the continuous advancement of industries toward the mid- to high-end of the global value chain, extending a "green olive branch" for international cooperation in the changing landscape of the accelerating restructuring of the global industrial and supply chain systems, expanding the "green circle of friends," smoothing the international circulation, and enhancing the "green" influence and voice in global environmental governance and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, can we achieve the transformation from a "learner" to a "demonstrator" and from a "participant" to a "leader" in global green development.

最后，发展绿色生产力是中国作出全球绿色发展贡献的必然要求。通过发展绿色生产力，加快绿色低碳技术创新和推广应用，推动产业不断向全球价值链中高端迈进，在全球产业体系和供应链体系加速重构的格局变化中，抛出国际合作的“绿色橄榄枝”，扩大“绿色朋友圈”，畅通国际大循环，增强在全球环境治理和人类命运共同体构建中的“绿色”影响力和话语权，才能实现从全球绿色发展的“学习者”到“示范者”，从“参与者”到“引领者”的转变。

Promote Institutional and Technological Innovation in Green Productive Forces

推动绿色生产力的制度与科技创新

First, accelerate the improvement of the top-level institutional design for green productive forces. Institutional design is an important driving factor and guarantee condition for promoting the development of green productive forces. Establish a natural resource property rights system with clear ownership, defined rights and responsibilities, and effective supervision; clarify the property rights of resource and environmental factors such as carbon emission rights, energy use rights, water use rights, and pollutant discharge rights; form a market signal transmission and pricing mechanism covering full costs; promote the construction of a national unified carbon market, a product carbon footprint management system, and a carbon labeling certification system; improve the three-dimensional spatiotemporal database of natural resources to ascertain the "ecological baseline"; and promote the construction of a green and low-carbon market trading system. Establish cross-regional ecological consultation and dialogue mechanisms, seek the "greatest common divisor of interests" in multi-stakeholder games, reduce the "friction" cost of institutional implementation, lower the institutional "transaction" cost, and provide an institutional foundation for the cross-regional free flow and market allocation of green production factors. At the same time, through financial transfer payments, horizontal ecological compensation, green tax reductions, fiscal rewards and subsidies, etc., form positive incentives of "ecology has a price, protection has rewards, and development has benefits," correcting the market failure of ecological "public goods"; construct an EOD (Ecology-Oriented Development) mechanism [5]5 EOD (Ecology-Oriented Development) mechanism is a development model that integrates ecological protection with economic projects, using returns from the latter to fund environmental restoration. that promotes mutual promotion between ecological construction and economic development, where economic development feeds back ecological protection, attract patient capital to invest in green and low-carbon advantageous industries, form a dual channel for the transformation of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [6]6 "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" (两山) is a famous dictum of Xi Jinping emphasizing the value of ecological assets. and a closed loop for the value transformation of ecological products, achieving a new development model of harmonious symbiosis between regional ecology and economy "from mutual exclusion to cooperation" and "from linear to circular," and stimulate the endogenous driving force of green productive forces development. Furthermore, strengthen environmental supervision and information disclosure systems, achieve all-round, real-time, and precise monitoring, comprehensively improve the quality of information disclosure, and strengthen the application of disclosure results; promote reform of green development performance evaluation and target assessment; while pursuing stable regional economic growth, incorporate the negative externalities of production and development into the comprehensive evaluation system, making ecological environmental protection a hard constraint, enhancing and protecting the "potential" and "staying power" of sustainable economic and social development, correctly assess and identify the "latent achievements" and "hidden achievements" of local development [7]7 "Latent achievements, adhere to the principle of balancing constraints and incentives, and guide local governments from "passive response" to "active action" in environmental regulation, from "race to the bottom" to "race to the top" [8].

首先，加快完善绿色生产力的顶层制度设计。制度设计是推动绿色生产力发展的重要驱动因素和保障条件。建立归属清晰、权责明确、监管有效的自然资源产权制度，明晰碳排放权、用能权、用水权、排污权等资源环境要素产权，形成覆盖全成本的市场信号传递和价格机制，推动全国统一碳市场、产品碳足迹管理体系、碳标识认证制度建设，完善自然资源三维立体时空数据库建设，摸清“生态底数”，并推动构建绿色低碳市场交易体系；建立跨区域生态协商、对话机制，在多主体博弈中寻求“利益最大公约数”，减少制度执行的“摩擦”成本，降低制度性“交易”成本，为绿色生产要素的跨区域自由流动、市场配置提供制度基础。同时，通过财政转移支付、横向生态补偿、绿色税收减免、财政奖励补贴等方式，形成“生态有价、保护有奖、发展有惠”的正向激励，纠正生态“公共产品”的市场失灵；构建生态建设与经济发展相互促进、经济发展反哺生态保护的EOD机制，吸引耐心资本投向绿色低碳优势产业，形成“两山”转化的双通道和生态产品价值转化的闭环循环，实现地区生态和经济 “从互斥到合作”“从线性到循环”的和谐共生新发展模式，激发绿色生产力发展的内生动力。再者，强化环境监管和信息披露制度，实现全方位、实时化、精准化监测，全面提升信息披露质量，并强化披露结果的应用；推进绿色发展绩效评价和目标考核改革，在追求地区经济稳定增长的同时，将生产和发展的负外部性纳入综合考评体系，让生态环境保护成为硬约束，增强和保护经济社会持续发展的“潜力”和“后劲”，正确考核认定地方发展的“潜绩”和“隐绩”，坚持约束和激励并重的原则，引导地方政府从环境规制的“被动应对”到“主动作为”，从“逐底竞争”到“逐顶竞争”。

Second, vigorously enhance green science and technology innovation capabilities. Green science and technology innovation is a key variable and core element in the development of green productive forces. Accelerate the construction of a scientific and technological support and innovation system compatible with green productive forces, advance the construction of typical application scenarios for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, establish strategic alliances for green industry technology innovation, national-level green and low-carbon technology research and development laboratories, ecological security technology innovation centers, etc., build a regional green and low-carbon technology collaborative innovation community, support the proactive and regular participation of green technology innovation entities in major science and technology project decision-making consultations, continue to use methods such as "open competition for projects" and "horse racing and exposure" [9] to encourage various research institutions and different types of enterprises to "show their mountains and reveal their waters" and "flash their swords and gleam their blades" [10] in key technology innovation, tackling difficulties, and achievement transformation in green manufacturing, clean production, etc., forming "active groups" and "heat maps" of green science and technology innovation. Actively use digital technology and green technology to transform and upgrade traditional industries, increase the cultivation of negative carbon technologies, promote the deep integration and chain restructuring of green technology and industrial development, expand the use of digitalized means of labor, reduce the economy's dependence on resources, land, and other factors, promote the "integration of digital and real" and "integration of digital and green" [11], and achieve breakthroughs in key disruptive technologies that drive pollution reduction, carbon reduction, growth of green environmental protection industries, and the development of new services, new consumption, and new business formats represented by ecological innovation and technological innovation. Through "raising 'intelligence' and cultivating 'newness'," expand the frontier of production possibilities, and promote the transformation of the "key variable" of technological innovation into a "significant increment" of high-quality development.

其次，大力提升绿色科技创新能力。绿色科技创新是绿色生产力发展的关键变量和核心要素。加快构建与绿色生产力相适应的科技支撑和创新体系，推进碳达峰、碳中和典型应用场景建设，组建绿色产业技术创新战略联盟、国家级绿色低碳技术研发实验室、生态安全技术创新中心等，构建区域绿色低碳技术协同创新共同体，支持绿色技术创新主体前置性、常态化参与重大科技项目决策咨询，继续以“揭榜挂帅”“赛马亮相”等方式，支持各类科研院所和不同类型的企业在绿色制造、清洁生产等关键技术创新、急难攻关及成果转化中“显山露水”“亮剑闪芒”，形成绿色科技创新的“活跃群”和“热力图”。积极运用数字技术、绿色技术改造提升传统产业，加大培育负碳技术，推动绿色技术与产业发展的深度融合和链式重构，扩大数字化属性劳动资料的运用，降低经济发展对资源、土地等要素依赖，促进“数实融合”“数绿融合”，实现以关键性颠覆性技术突破，带动减污降碳、绿色环保产业增长和生态创新、科技创新为代表的新服务、新消费、新业态发展。通过“提‘智’育‘新’”，扩大生产可能性边界，推动技术创新“关键变量”加速转化为高质量发展的“显著增量”。

Finally, fully stimulate the vitality of scientific and technological innovation. Practical innovation is the vitality manifestation and effective outcome of green productive forces development. Encourage each region to fully tap regional green competitive advantages and potential according to the national main functional area planning, achieving a comprehensive energy level leap. At the same time, through green transformation and low-carbon development, empower remote less-developed areas, central regions, traditional resource-energy-rich areas, key ecological function areas, and major agricultural production areas, release comparative advantages, seize the "green opportunity," "jump-start" on the new green and low-carbon track, effectively bridge the regional development "gap," and promote common prosperity. Establish a "land-industry-environment" negative list for market access, explore resource-saving and environmentally friendly production models, promote the construction of "zero-carbon cities," "zero-carbon parks," and "zero-carbon factories," build a "six green" system [12] (green products, green management, green supply, green technology, etc.), promote the development of the "six new industries," facilitate the construction of the "four new facilities," explore new models where ecology and economy soar together – "becoming beautiful through green," "becoming prosperous through green," "becoming strong through green" – vigorously promote the demonstration of the "four reservoirs" economy [13], the demonstration of "dual control of carbon emissions" development, and the demonstration of "high-level protection of river basins," forming a development pattern of "benchmark leadership, multiregional catch-up," and accumulating local experience and programmatic wisdom for the construction of Beautiful China pioneer zones [14]. Make good use of the national "two new" and "two heavy" policies [15], continuously promote industrial structure adjustment and layout optimization, forward-plan the industrial chain and innovation chain, promote optimal resource allocation and cross-regional cooperation, provide "new samples" for regional green productive forces development, actively integrate into global green industry chain and supply chain competition and cooperation, make original contributions to Chinese-path modernization ecological and economic practice and the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, and achieve a transformation from "green constraint" to "green breakout," from "green response" to "green model."

最后，充分激发科技创新活力。实践创新是绿色生产力发展的活力表现和成效所在。鼓励各区域根据国家主体功能区划，充分挖掘区域绿色竞争优势与潜能，实现综合能级跃升。同时，通过绿色转型和低碳发展，赋能偏远欠发达地区、中部地区、传统资源能源富集区、重点生态功能区、农产品主产区，释放比较优势，把握“绿色机遇”，“抢跑”绿色低碳新赛道，有效弥合区域发展“鸿沟”，推动共同富裕。建立“土地—产业—环境”准入负面清单，探索资源节约型、环境友好型生产模式，推动“零碳城市”“零碳园区”“零碳工厂”建设，构建绿色产品、绿色管理、绿色供应、绿色技术等“六绿”体系，推动“六新产业”发展，促进“四新设施”建设，探索“因绿而美”“因绿而富”“因绿而强”生态和经济比翼齐飞的新模式，大力推进“四库”经济示范、“碳排放双控”发展示范、“流域高水平保护”示范，形成“标杆引领，多地追赶”的发展格局，为美丽中国先行区建设积累地方经验和方案智慧。用好国家“两新”“两重”政策，持续推动产业结构调整和布局优化，超前布局产业链和创新链，促进资源优化配置和跨区域合作，提供区域绿色生产力发展的“新样本”，积极融入全球绿色产业链供应链竞争与合作，作出中国式现代化生态经济实践和人类命运共同体构建的原创性贡献，实现从“绿色约束”走向“绿色突围”，从“绿色响应”走向“绿色典范”。

(The author is a professor and Party Secretary of China Three Gorges University.)

（作者系三峡大学党委书记、教授）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧