The Three Dimensions of Upholding Harmony between Humanity and Nature

“Upholding harmony between humanity and nature” is the theoretical cornerstone of the scientific system of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. It profoundly answers, from the perspective of the Marxist ecological philosophical worldview and methodological principles, the major theoretical and practical questions of why China should build an ecological civilization, what kind of ecological civilization to build, and how to build it in the New Era. From the ecological material origin postulate of “humanity and nature form a community of life,” to the philosophical-ethical concept of “respecting nature, conforming to nature, and protecting nature,” and then to the national development strategy choice of “building a Chinese-path modernization in which humanity and nature coexist harmoniously,” it presents a systematic and complete basic strategy for socialist ecological civilization construction and the essential requirement for accelerating the building of a Beautiful China and comprehensively building a modern socialist country.

“坚持人与自然和谐共生”是习近平生态文明思想科学体系的理论基石，从马克思主义生态哲学世界观和方法论原则层面上深刻回答了新时代中国为什么建设生态文明、建设什么样的生态文明和怎样建设生态文明的重大理论和实践问题。从“人与自然是生命共同体”的生态物质本原设定到“尊重自然、顺应自然、保护自然”的哲学伦理观念，再到“建设人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化”的国家发展战略抉择，呈现为系统完整的社会主义生态文明建设的基本方略和加快推进美丽中国建设、全面建设社会主义现代化国家的本质要求。

I. The Ecological Material Origin Postulate: Humanity and Nature Form a Community of Life

一、 生态物质本原设定：人与自然是生命共同体

Unlike modern philosophical concepts based on the subject-object dichotomy between humanity and nature, the first dimension of “upholding harmony between humanity and nature,” as an expression of the philosophical worldview and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, emphasizes the characterization of a community of life in which human individuals, society, and civilization coexist harmoniously with the natural ecosystem, grounded in the material origin nature of the natural world: “Nature is the mother of life; humanity and nature form a community of life.” Correspondingly, for actual human society and civilization, nature is the basic condition for human survival and development, and human practical activities must be premised on scientifically understanding, respecting, and following the laws of natural ecology.

与建基于人与自然主客二分关系的近现代哲学观念不同，作为习近平生态文明思想哲学世界观和方法论表达的“坚持人与自然和谐共生”的首个维度，是强调秉持自然世界物质本原性质基础上的人类个体、社会与文明同自然生态系统和谐共生的生命共同体表征：“自然是生命之母，人与自然是生命共同体”。相应地，对于现实的人类社会和文明而言，大自然是人类赖以生存发展的基本条件，人类实践活动则必须以科学认识和尊重遵循自然生态规律为前提。

1. Nature Is the Mother of Life

1.自然是生命之母

General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphatically pointed out, “Human beings arise from nature, and the relationship between humanity and nature is one of symbiosis; harm done to nature will ultimately harm humanity itself.” It must always be clear that the relationship between humanity and nature is not only one in which humans, as subjects of social and historical practice, actively cognize and transform nature, but also one in which humans, as biological beings, adapt to and depend on the natural ecological environment. Humans live by nature. Nature nurtures and fosters humanity, and humanity should take nature as its root. In real life, nature not only provides humans with sources of means of subsistence, such as fertile land and rivers, lakes, and seas rich in fish, but also provides humans with sources of means of production, such as various forms of raw materials and labor tools.

习近平总书记强调指出，“人因自然而生，人与自然是一种共生关系，对自然的伤害最终会伤及人类自身”。必须始终明确，人与自然之间的关系，不仅是人类作为社会与历史实践主体对自然的能动性认知改造关系，还是人类作为生物性存在对于自然生态环境的适应依存性关系。人靠自然界生活。大自然孕育抚养着人类，而人类则理应以自然为根。现实生活中，自然界不仅给人类提供了生活资料来源，比如肥沃的土地、渔产丰富的江河湖海，而且给人类提供了生产资料来源，比如各种形式的生产原材料和劳动工具。

From the basic standpoint of dialectical materialism, nature has a fundamental and determining significance for human life and its continuation. Humans are natural beings, first reflected in the fact that they are products of the long-term evolution of nature. Engels elaborated on this in the “Introduction” to *Dialectics of Nature*. “The whole of nature, from the smallest thing to the biggest, from a grain of sand to the sun, from the protist to man, is in a constant state of coming into being and passing away, in a constant flux, in a ceaseless state of motion and change.” It can be said that the birth of human society and civilization itself is first a historical result of the continuous movement and evolution of the natural material world; it only gradually presents itself as a socio-historical process as human society enters the age of civilization.

从辩证唯物主义的基本立场来说，大自然对于人类生命及其存续具有本原性决定意义。人是自然存在物，首先体现在它是自然界长期演进的产物。恩格斯在《自然辩证法》“导言”中对此做了详细阐述。“整个自然界，从最小的东西到最大的东西，从沙粒到太阳，从原生生物到人，都处于永恒的产生和消逝中，处于不断的流动中，处于不息的运动和变化中。”可以说，人类社会与文明的诞生本身，首先是自然物质世界不断运动与演化的历史性结果，只是随着人类社会进入文明时代，它才逐渐呈现为一个社会历史性的过程。

In contemporary human society and civilization, although the level of economic and social development and technological progress changes with each passing day, the natural and material law that “humans are natural beings” has not fundamentally changed. On the one hand, humans, as a biological species or living existence, still cannot do without a suitable natural ecological environment, such as clean air, pure water sources, and healthy land. On the other hand, nature still provides us with the most basic daily necessities or raw materials in various ways, such as different kinds of animal, plant, and microbial food. Therefore, General Secretary Xi Jinping repeatedly emphasizes, “There is no substitute for the ecological environment; when it is used, it is not noticed, but when it is lost, it cannot be sustained.” We must protect the ecological environment like we protect our eyes, and treat it like we treat life.

在当代人类社会和文明中，尽管经济社会发展水平和科技进步日新月异，“人是自然存在物”这一自然和物质法则并没有发生根本改变。一方面，人类作为一个生物物种或生命性存在，依然离不了适宜的自然生态环境，比如清新的空气、洁净的水源和健康的土地。另一方面，大自然仍以多种方式向我们提供着最基本的生活用品或原材料，比如不同种类的动植物和微生物食物。因而，习近平总书记反复强调，“生态环境没有替代品，用之不觉，失之难存”，我们必须像保护眼睛一样保护生态环境，像对待生命一样对待生态环境。

2. Humans Produce, Live, and Develop through Interaction with Nature

2.人类在同自然的互动中生产、生活、发展

Acknowledging and emphasizing the prior (real) determining role of natural ecological environmental conditions does not mean that human society and its practices can only be a passive existence and activity. Rather, we must always remember that “natural objects constitute the natural conditions for human existence, and humans produce, live, and develop through interaction with nature.”

承认并强调自然生态环境条件的先天（现实）决定性作用，并不意味着人类社会及其实践只能是一种被动性的存在和活动，而是必须时刻铭记，“自然物构成人类生存的自然条件，人类在同自然的互动中生产、生活、发展”。

First, human production or economic activity is a process of material exchange or metabolism with the natural world, mediated by labor. “Labor is, first of all, a process between man and nature, a process in which man, through his own actions, mediates, regulates, and controls the material exchange between himself and nature... Through this movement he acts upon external nature and changes it, and in this way he simultaneously changes his own nature. He develops the potentialities slumbering within nature, and subjects the play of its forces to his own sovereign power.” On the one hand, human labor practice or economic production activity has a significant subjective character. Through exerting their subjective initiative, humans can conceive, design, and manufacture abundant products or material wealth that do not exist ready-made in the natural world, thereby meeting their own continuously developing needs for material and cultural life and a better life. On the other hand, nature has been continuously providing the objects of labor and instruments of labor that constitute elements of human labor or economic production activity, and in the form of objective natural laws or external necessities, it restricts the real possibility of labor or economic production activity, presenting some ultimate constraints that cannot be breached. Therefore, human labor or economic production activity is not only a process of dialectical interaction or mutual shaping between humanity and nature, but also concerns how to properly resolve the issue of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.

首先，人类生产或经济活动是以劳动为中介的、与自然世界的物质变换或新陈代谢过程。“劳动首先是人和自然之间的过程，是人以自身的活动来中介、调整和控制人和自然之间的物质变换的过程……当他通过这种运动作用于他身外的自然并改变自然时，也就同时改变他自身的自然。他使自身的自然中蕴藏着的潜力发挥出来，并且使这种力的活动受他自己控制。”一方面，人类劳动实践或经济生产活动具有显著的主体性特征，能够通过发挥自己的主观能动性，构想、设计与制造出自然世界中并不现成存在的丰富产品或物质财富，从而满足自身不断发展着的物质文化生活需要和美好生活需要。另一方面，自然界也在一直提供着作为人类劳动或经济生产活动构成要素的生产劳动对象、生产劳动工具，并且以自然客观规律或外在必然性的形式制约着劳动或经济生产活动的现实可能性，以及呈现为一些无法突破的终极性约束。因此，人类劳动或经济生产活动，不仅是人与自然之间的辩证互动或相互形塑过程，还关涉到如何解决好人与自然之间的和谐共生问题。

It should be pointed out that digital labor and virtual economic production, which are becoming increasingly widespread or important in today’s world, ultimately cannot do without the physical input of natural material resources and the supporting guarantee of the natural ecological environment. “Therefore, labor, as the creator of use-values, as useful labor, is a condition of human existence independent of all forms of society; it is an eternal natural necessity which mediates the material exchange between man and nature, i.e., human life itself.”

需要指出，当今世界变得日益广泛或重要的数字劳动和虚拟经济生产，最终也还是离不开自然物质资源方面的实体性投入和自然生态环境方面的依托保障。“因此，劳动作为使用价值的创造者，作为有用劳动，是不以一切社会形式为转移的人类生存条件，是人和自然之间的物质变换即人类生活得以实现的永恒的自然必然性。”

Second, the needs of actual human production and life and their satisfaction are also a process of interactive mutual shaping with nature. The fundamental reason why humans can transcend their animal attributes and become a civilized existence lies in the gradual formation of socio-historical needs for material and cultural life and their modes of satisfaction. “Only a consciously organized social production organization with planned production and distribution can socially lift man above the rest of the animal world, just as production in general has lifted him above the rest of the animal world in a species sense.” Thus, in the most general sense, life and development under conditions of human society and civilization are a process of constantly changing the various “gifts” given by nature to satisfy one’s own needs and pursuits, and continuously enriching and expanding these needs and pursuits. That is, it is a process of creating more and more material and cultural products or wealth to meet people’s continuously improving needs for a better life, and creating more and more high-quality ecological products or well-being to meet people’s continuously improving needs for a beautiful ecological environment.

其次，人类现实生产生活需要及其满足，同样是一个与自然之间相互塑造的互动过程。人类之所以能够超越自己的动物属性而成为一种文明性存在，从根本上说就在于逐渐形成了社会历史性的物质文化生活需要及其满足方式。“只有一种有计划地生产和分配的自觉的社会生产组织，才能在社会方面把人从其余的动物中提升出来，正像一般生产曾经在物种方面把人从其余的动物中提升出来一样。”因而，从最一般意义上说，人类社会与文明条件下的生活及其发展，就是不断改变自然界所给予的各种“恩赐”以满足自身的需要追求并不断丰富拓展这种需要追求的过程，也就是创造出越来越多物质文化产品或财富以满足人们不断提高的美好生活需要，创造出越来越多优质生态产品或福祉以满足人们不断提高的优美生态环境需要。

However, it must also be seen that humans always produce and live within nature. Therefore, the satisfaction of their actual production and living needs must also be a process of consciously recognizing and being subject to the laws, rhythms, and limits of natural ecology. Engels pointed out, “If man, by science and creative genius, has subdued the forces of nature, they avenge themselves upon him, subjecting him, in proportion as he has employed them, to a veritable despotism independent of all social organization.” That is to say, the pursuit and satisfaction of socio-historical production and living needs cannot transcend or violate the objective laws and ultimate constraints of the natural ecology. In short, only when humans treat nature kindly will nature continuously bestow gifts upon humans. Conversely, once nature is systematically destroyed, human survival and development become water without a source, a tree without roots.

但也必须看到，人类始终是在自然界之中生产与生活，因而其现实生产生活需要的满足，还必须是一个自觉认识并受制于自然生态规律、节奏与限度的过程。恩格斯指出，“如果说人靠科学和创造性天才征服了自然力，那么自然力也对人进行报复，按人利用自然力的程度使人服从一种真正的专制，而不管社会组织怎样”。也就是说，社会历史性的生产生活需要追求及其满足，也不能超越或违背自然生态方面的客观规律性和终极性约束。总之，只有当人类善待自然时，自然才会持续不断地馈赠人类，反之，自然一旦遭到系统性破坏，人类生存发展就成了无源之水、无本之木。

It is precisely based on the above-mentioned basic Marxist viewpoints that General Secretary Xi Jinping, when discussing the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, particularly emphasized that “the Yangtze River Economic Belt, as a river-basin economy, involves multiple aspects such as water, roads, ports, shores, industry, cities, and biology, wetlands, and the environment, and is a whole that must be comprehensively grasped and coordinated in planning,” and that “regions along the Yellow River should proceed from their actual conditions, where water is suitable, use water; where mountains are suitable, use mountains; where grain is suitable, grow grain; where agriculture is suitable, practice agriculture; where industry is suitable, develop industry; where commerce is suitable, engage in commerce, and actively explore new paths of high-quality development with regional characteristics.” This recognition of and compliance with natural objective necessity is by no means a simple “bowing” or “submission” to the forces of nature by humanity, but rather a respect for the laws of natural ecology, a respect for economic laws and social laws, and is the prerequisite for truly exerting and realizing the power of the human subject or subjective initiative.

正是基于上述马克思主义基本观点，习近平总书记在论述推动长江经济带发展、黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展时特别强调，“长江经济带作为流域经济，涉及水、路、港、岸、产、城和生物、湿地、环境等多个方面，是一个整体，必须全面把握、统筹谋划”，“沿黄河各地区要从实际出发，宜水则水、宜山则山，宜粮则粮、宜农则农，宜工则工、宜商则商，积极探索富有地域特色的高质量发展新路子”。这种对自然客观必然性的承认与遵从所体现的绝非简单是人类向大自然力量的“低头”或“屈服”，而是同时对自然生态规律的尊重、对经济规律和社会规律的尊重，是真正发挥和实现人类主体力量或主观能动性的前提。

Finally, the overall development and progress of human society and civilization is also an interactive process of co-evolution with nature. “Ecological civilization is a major achievement of human social progress… Ecological civilization is the product of industrial civilization reaching a certain stage of development, and is a new requirement for achieving harmonious development between humanity and nature,” and “ecological civilization is the historical trend of the development of human civilization.” Humanity lives between heaven and earth, taking heaven, earth, and nature as the source of survival and the foundation of development, and in the long-term process of interaction with nature, has gradually created and developed contemporary human civilization. In this long journey, the development and progress of human society and civilization go hand in hand with, and mutually support, the socio-historical progress in the relationship between humanity and nature. In particular, the latter has undergone a process from initial high dependence and submission, to later large-scale development and utilization, and then to today’s greater emphasis on harmonious coexistence. The civilizational innovation or green development of the present era includes both a comprehensive and profound greening or “great transformation” at the level of the basic economic and social system, especially the transformative efforts toward a green future society, and the construction of institutional policy frameworks and their dynamic mechanisms for more coordinated and sustainable economic development, social development, and ecological development within general modern society.

最后，人类社会和文明的整体发展进步，也是一个同大自然之间协同进化的互动过程。“生态文明是人类社会进步的重大成果……生态文明是工业文明发展到一定阶段的产物，是实现人与自然和谐发展的新要求”，“生态文明是人类文明发展的历史趋势”。人类生活在天地之间，以天地自然为生存之源、发展之本，并在与大自然的长期相互作用过程中，逐渐创造和发展了当代人类文明。在这个漫长历程中，人类社会与文明的发展进步，同在人与自然关系上的社会历史性进步相伴而行、互为支撑，尤其是后者经历了从原初的高度依附顺从到后来的较大规模开发利用，再到今天的更多强调和谐共处的发展过程。当今时代的文明革新或绿色发展，既包括基本经济社会制度层面上的全面深刻绿化或“大转型”，尤其是走向绿色未来社会的变革努力，也包括在一般现代社会之中构建更加协调可持续的经济发展、社会发展与生态发展的制度政策架构及其动力机制。

Therefore, the current global discourse and politics of green sustainable development is essentially committed to systematically resolving the deep-seated contradictions between humanity and nature that have become increasingly apparent since humanity entered industrial society, seeking ways for humanity and nature to coexist harmoniously, and jointly building a community of life for humanity and nature or a community of life on Earth. Its ultimate ideal goal is that “the associated producers, rationally regulating their material interchange with nature, bringing it under their common control, instead of being ruled by it as a blind power; accomplishing it with the least expenditure of energy and under conditions most adequate to their human nature and most worthy of it.” [1]1 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume III, Chapter 48, “The Trinity Formula.”

因而，当前的全球绿色可持续发展话语与政治，其实质就是要致力于系统性地解决人类进入工业社会以来日益显现的人与自然深层次矛盾，共谋人与自然和谐共处共生之道，共同构建人与自然生命共同体或地球生命共同体。而它的终极理想目标则是，“社会化的人，联合起来的生产者，将合理地调节他们和自然之间的物质变换，把它置于他们的共同控制之下，而不让它作为一种盲目的力量来统治自己；靠消耗最小的力量，在最无愧于和最适合于他们的人类本性的条件下来进行这种物质变换”。

Specifically regarding the “Chinese-path modernization of harmony between humanity and nature,” which is an important regional or temporal manifestation of the above-mentioned global trend of change, we see that the greatness of China’s modernization lies in the fact that it cannot follow the old path, yet must reach the level of developed countries. The only way is to take the path of scientific development, achieve sustainable development, and do a good job in ecological civilization construction.

具体到作为上述世界性变革趋势的重要区域性或时态性呈现的“人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化”，我们看到，中国现代化建设之所以伟大，就在于既不能走老路，又要达到发达国家的水平，那就只有走科学发展之路，实现可持续发展，抓好生态文明建设。

3. The relationship between humanity and nature is the most fundamental relationship in human society

3.人与自然的关系是人类社会最基本的关系

Marxism attaches great importance to the decisive role of relations of production, especially economic property relations, but also emphasizes that real human society must be understood and treated as a systemic whole. This includes not only the relations between people, i.e., social relations in a narrow sense, but also the relations between humanity and nature, and between society and nature. “History can be examined from two sides, it can be divided into the history of nature and the history of mankind. But these two sides are inseparable; as long as people exist, the history of nature and the history of mankind mutually condition each other.” [2]2 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The German Ideology*. In real life, the relationship between humanity and nature is both a dynamic reflection of the relationship between people and also has a profound impact on the development of the relationship between people. Therefore, the relationship between humanity and nature is the most fundamental relationship in human society.

马克思主义高度重视生产关系特别是经济财产关系的决定性作用，但同时也强调，必须把现实的人类社会作为一个系统性整体来理解和对待。这其中，不仅包括人与人之间的关系，即狭义上的社会关系，还包括人与自然、社会与自然之间的关系。“历史可以从两方面来考察，可以把它划分为自然史和人类史。但这两方面是不可分割的；只要有人存在，自然史和人类史就彼此相互制约。”在现实生活中，人与自然的关系，既是人与人关系的动态性映现，也会对人与人关系的发展产生深刻影响。因而，人与自然的关系是人类社会中最基本的关系。

From the perspective of historical evolution, the development of human society and civilization has always been inseparable from nature. In the stage of gathering and hunting civilization, the relationship between humanity and nature was one that seemed harmonious but was in fact arduous, with humanity struggling to achieve its own (species) survival and reproduction. Over time, humanity gradually learned to utilize the natural resource conditions in the surrounding environment and appreciate the beauty of natural ecology, developing distinctive regional agricultural civilizations. Since the era of industrial civilization, while creating immense material wealth and greatly improving their material and cultural living standards, humanity has also formed an anthropocentric worldview and values that seek to transcend and conquer nature, continuously accelerating the extraction and utilization of natural resources, and causing the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystem balance. In contemporary society, facing a series of global ecological and environmental challenges such as global warming, sharp decline in biodiversity, intensifying land desertification, and frequent extreme climate events, humanity has gradually realized the importance of harmonious coexistence with nature and has adopted various institutional and policy measures to control pollution, protect the environment, and restore ecology. Respecting, adapting to, and protecting nature have gradually become guiding ideological principles for promoting sustainable development and advancing ecological civilization construction.

从历史的演进来看，人类社会和文明的发展始终与自然界密不可分。在采集和渔猎文明阶段，人类与自然之间是一种看似和谐融洽、实则艰辛异常的关系，艰难致力于实现自身（物种）的生存繁衍。随着时间的推移，人类逐渐学会利用周围环境中的自然资源条件并欣赏自然生态之美，发展出了各具特色的地域性农业文明。工业文明时代以来，人类在创造出巨量物质财富、大幅度提升自身物质文化生活水平的同时，也形成了试图超越并征服大自然的人类中心主义世界观、价值观，不断加速对自然资源的攫取利用，并造成了地球生态系统平衡的破坏。当代社会，面对全球气候变暖、生物多样性锐减、土地荒漠化加剧、极端气候事件频发等一系列全球生态环境难题，人类逐渐意识到与自然和谐共处的重要性，并采取多种制度与政策措施治理污染、保护环境、修复生态，而尊重自然、顺应自然和保护自然也逐渐成为促进实现可持续发展和推动生态文明建设的指导性理念准则。

What needs to be emphasized here is the mutual interaction and influence between the relationship between humanity (society) and nature and the social relations between people. According to historical materialism, on the one hand, the relationship between humanity (society) and nature at a given historical stage often reflects the overall level of social productive forces and scientific-technological development of that era, and thus has relatively high stability, while social relations or relations between people are in a constant state of evolution due to the influence of various specific factors. On the other hand, the establishment and stabilization of a specific form of social relations becomes an important influencing or intervening factor in the relationship between humanity (society) and nature in that era. “Each stage of history encounters a certain material result, a certain sum of productive forces, a historically created relation of individuals to nature and to one another, which is handed down to each generation from its predecessor; a mass of productive forces, capital funds, and conditions, which, on the one hand, is indeed modified by the new generation, but on the other hand, also prescribes for it its own conditions of life and gives it a definite development, a special character.” [3]3 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The German Ideology*.

这里需要强调的是人（社会）与自然关系和人与人之间社会关系的彼此作用、相互影响。依据唯物史观，一方面，某一历史阶段的人（社会）与自然的关系，往往体现着那个时代的社会生产力与科技发展整体水平，因而具有相对较高的稳定性，而社会关系或人与人之间的关系，则会由于各种具体因素影响而处在不断演变过程之中。另一方面，某种具体形态的社会关系的确立与稳定，又会成为那个时代的人（社会）与自然关系的重要影响或干预因素。“历史的每一阶段都遇到一定的物质结果，一定的生产力总和，人对自然以及个人之间历史地形成的关系，都遇到前一代传给后一代的大量生产力、资金和环境，尽管一方面这些生产力、资金和环境为新的一代所改变，但另一方面，它们也预先规定新的一代本身的生活条件，使它得到一定的发展和具有特殊的性质。”

Clearly, a typical manifestation of this interaction is the different circumstances of the ecological environment in the modernization development process under socialist and capitalist social conditions. On the one hand, all countries in the world today share the common will and goal of promoting economic and social modernization. Therefore, developing modern science and technology and efficiently utilizing natural resources is a universal goal and path choice. On the other hand, countless facts have proven that, whether for modernization development or sustainable development, the socialist and capitalist economic and social institutional frameworks provide very different practical methodologies and path choices. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “In the more than 200 years of human modernization, the number of countries that have achieved industrialization does not exceed thirty, and the population does not exceed one billion. Promoting ecological civilization construction in our country, the largest developing country with a population of over 1.3 billion, and building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, will have a worldwide impact.” [4]4 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection,” May 18, 2018.

很显然，这种相互作用的典型体现，就是社会主义与资本主义社会条件下现代化发展过程中生态环境的不同境遇。一方面，当今世界各国都具有促进经济社会现代化发展的共同意愿和目标追求，因而，发展现代科学技术和高效开发利用自然资源是一种普遍的目标与进路选择。但另一方面，无数事实证明，无论是就现代化发展还是可持续发展而言，社会主义与资本主义的经济社会制度框架，都提供着十分不同的实践方法论与进路选择。习近平总书记指出，“在人类二百多年的现代化进程中，实现工业化的国家不超过三十个、人口不超过十亿。在我们这个十三亿多人口的最大发展中国家推进生态文明建设，建成富强民主文明和谐美丽的社会主义现代化强国，其影响将是世界性的”。

II. Philosophical and Ethical Concepts: Respecting Nature, Adapting to Nature, and Protecting Nature

二、 哲学伦理观念：尊重自然、顺应自然、保护自然

The second dimension or level of “adhering to harmony between humanity and nature” is the logical inference or extension of the Marxist ecological philosophical worldview and methodological principle that “humanity and nature are a community of life,” namely, the concept of ecological civilization of “respecting nature, adapting to nature, and protecting nature.” These concepts are both the enduring root essence of traditional Chinese ecological culture and the most profound empirical summary and theoretical synthesis of the practice of ecological civilization construction in China’s New Era under the guidance of Marxist ecological philosophy.

“坚持人与自然和谐共生”的第二个维度或层面，是“人与自然是生命共同体”这一马克思主义生态哲学世界观和方法论原则的合逻辑推论或延展，也就是“尊重自然、顺应自然、保护自然”的生态文明观念。这些观念既是中华传统生态文化绵延流长的根脉精髓，也是马克思主义生态哲学指导下我国新时代生态文明建设实践的最深刻经验概括与理论总结。

1. Respecting nature

1.尊重自然

The philosophical theoretical implication of “respecting nature” is very profound, emphasizing the reverential cognition, practice, and ethical attitude of humanity toward natural ecosystems and their constituent elements under contemporary social and civilizational conditions, or in other words, an ecological civilization worldview, historical view, and value view. Its main public policy and individual behavioral regulatory implication is that human economic and social development, as well as production and daily life, must fully recognize and comply with the laws, requirements, and limits of natural ecosystems and their constituent elements. Especially in the process of economic and social modernization, whether in industrial and agricultural production, urban and rural construction, or ecological environmental protection and governance, all must be premised on scientific understanding and full respect for the laws and requirements of natural ecology.

“尊重自然”的哲学理论意涵非常深厚，强调的是当代社会与文明条件下人类对于自然生态系统及其构成性元素的尊崇性认知、实践与伦理态度，或者说一种生态文明的世界观、历史观与价值观。而它的主要公共政策与个体行为规约意涵是，人类经济社会发展与生产生活要充分认识和遵从自然生态系统及其构成元素的规律、要求与容限。尤其是在经济社会现代化发展过程中，无论是工农业生产、城乡建设还是生态环境保护治理，都要以科学认识和充分尊重自然生态规律要求为前提。

Throughout history, there are numerous examples of human society and civilization benefiting from respecting the laws of natural ecology and suffering from violating them. When ecology thrives, civilization thrives; when ecology declines, civilization declines. Engels, in *Dialectics of Nature*, detailed the examples of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor, and the Italians of the Alps. The former cut down forests to obtain farmland, but the unintended result was that these places later became barren lands, because once the forests were lost, the centers of moisture accumulation and storage were also lost; the latter cut down and exhausted the fir forests on the southern slopes of the mountains that had been carefully protected on the northern slopes, but they did not anticipate that they thereby destroyed the foundation of local alpine animal husbandry, and subsequently led to the drying up of mountain springs for most of the year and more violent floods during the rainy season. Based on this, Engels issued a stern warning: “Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us.”

古往今来，人类社会与文明因尊重自然生态规律而受益、违背自然生态规律而受损的实例众多。生态兴则文明兴，生态衰则文明衰。恩格斯在《自然辩证法》中详述了美索不达米亚、希腊、小亚细亚等地居民和阿尔卑斯山的意大利人的例子。前者为了获得耕地而砍伐森林，但未曾想到的结果却是，这些地方后来成了不毛之地，因为一旦失去了森林也就失去了水分的积聚中心和贮藏库；后者在山南坡把那些在山北坡得到精心保护的枞树林砍光用尽，但没有预料到，他们也因此毁掉了当地高山畜牧业的根基，并进而导致山泉在一年大部分时间里的枯竭和雨季更加凶猛的洪水。基于此，恩格斯发出严厉警告：“我们不要过分陶醉于我们人类对自然界的胜利。对于每一次这样的胜利，自然界都对我们进行报复。”

In the long history of the development of Chinese civilization, there are also too many lessons in the relationship between humanity and nature. On the one hand, the Chinese nation has always respected and loved nature. The Chinese civilization, spanning over five thousand years, has nurtured a rich ecological culture and created outstanding achievements in production and daily life, such as the Yuheng system [5]5 The Yuheng system was an ancient Chinese institution for managing natural resources, including forestry, fisheries, and hunting, with officials (Yuheng) appointed to enforce seasonal regulations and protect resources, lasting from the pre-Qin period (before 221 BCE) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). that lasted from the pre-Qin period to the Qing Dynasty, the mulberry-dike-fish-pond system in the Jiangnan region that began in the Spring and Autumn period, and the Dujiangyan irrigation system from the Warring States period. On the other hand, some regions in ancient China indeed experienced the painful lesson of ecological decline leading to civilizational decline. The once glorious Loulan civilization is now buried under vast shifting sands, while the ecological environments of the Hexi Corridor and the Loess Plateau were severely damaged due to long-term deforestation for land reclamation. As a result, since the mid-Tang Dynasty, China’s economic center gradually shifted eastward and southward.

在中华文明的长期发展历史中在人与自然关系方面也有着太多的经验教训。一方面，中华民族向来尊重自然、热爱自然，绵延五千多年的中华文明孕育了丰富的生态文化，并创造出像自先秦一直延续至清代的虞衡制度、始于春秋时期的江南桑基鱼塘系统、战国时期的都江堰等生产生活实践的杰出成果。但另一方面，我国古代一些地区也确有过生态衰而文明衰的惨痛教训。古代一度辉煌的楼兰文明，如今已经被埋藏在万顷流沙之下，而河西走廊、黄土高原等地的生态环境，也曾由于长期的毁林开荒而遭到严重破坏。结果，自唐代中叶以来，我国经济中心逐渐向东、向南转移。

Since the advent of industrial civilization, with the rapid advancement of science and technology, human society, while creating unprecedented material wealth and greatly improving its own material and cultural level, has also accelerated the exploitation and utilization of natural resources, and to a certain extent, disrupted the original cycles and balance of the Earth’s ecosystem, creating deep-seated contradictions between humanity and nature in many aspects. For example, starting in the 1930s, multiple environmental pollution incidents occurred successively in many European and American countries, causing huge losses and shocking the world, triggering international criticism and reflection on environmental issues and the capitalist development model. Thus, it is precisely under the conditions of modern society and civilization with advanced science and technology that we have become more clearly aware of the interdependent and harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, and of the extreme importance of respecting natural ecological conditions and their objective laws.

进入工业文明时代以来，随着科学技术的快速进步，人类社会在创造出前所未有的物质财富、大幅度提高自身物质文化水平的同时，也加速了对自然资源的开发利用，并在一定程度上打破了地球生态系统原有的循环和平衡，造成了人与自然之间诸多方面的深层次矛盾。比如，自20世纪30年代始，许多欧美国家相继发生的多起环境公害事件，损失巨大，震惊世界，引发了国际社会对生态环境问题和资本主义发展模式的批评反思。因而，恰恰是在科技昌明的现代社会与文明条件下，我们更清楚地意识到了人与自然关系的相互依存、和谐共生本质，意识到了尊重自然生态条件及其客观规律的极端重要性。

It can be said that since reform and opening up, our understanding of the essential characteristics of Chinese-path modernization has evolved from “grasping both material progress and cultural-ethical progress” to the “three-sphere plan,” the “four-sphere plan,” and then to the “five-sphere integrated plan.” This evolution prominently reflects the improvement in our understanding of the laws of natural ecology and their importance, that is, the enhancement of the whole society’s level of awareness of respecting nature and its capacity for practice. In the report of the 18th National Congress of the CPC, ecological progress was for the first time explicitly incorporated into the “five-sphere integrated plan” overall layout for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and “respecting nature” was listed as an ecological civilization concept that the whole society must firmly establish. Since then, “respecting nature” has been included in authoritative documents including the reports of the 19th and 20th National Congresses of the CPC, and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches at the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection in 2018 and 2023, and has become one of the ideological foundations for the Party and government’s series of major decisions to advance ecological progress.

可以说，自改革开放以来，我们关于中国式现代化本质特征的认识，从“两个文明一起抓”到“三位一体”“四位一体”再到“五位一体”的演进，所突出体现的正是对于自然生态规律及其重要性认识的提高，也就是整个社会尊重自然意识水平与践行能力的提升。在党的十八大报告中，生态文明建设首次被明确纳入中国特色社会主义事业的“五位一体”总体布局，而“尊重自然”也被列为需要全社会牢固树立的生态文明观念。自此，“尊重自然”被列入了包括党的十九大报告、二十大报告、习近平总书记在2018年和2023年全国生态环境保护大会上的重要讲话等在内的权威性文献之中，并成为党和政府推进生态文明建设系列重大决策的思想基础之一。

For example, after the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the basic basis for the Party Central Committee and the State Council to formulate and implement the strategic action of “(continuously and deeply) fighting (and winning) the battle against pollution” was that, although China’s ecological and environmental protection and governance had achieved some notable results, a very severe overall situation of tightening resource constraints, serious environmental pollution, and ecosystem degradation had emerged. The widespread and prolonged smog pollution weather across the country highlighted the increasingly acute contradiction between humanity and nature in the process of economic and social modernization, and affected the normal production and daily life of the people to varying degrees. Therefore, controlling environmental pollution and solving prominent environmental problems is not only to create a good production and living environment for the broad masses of the people, but also to continuously establish and strengthen the whole Party’s and the whole society’s awareness of respecting nature. Another example is the creation of a system of protected areas with national parks as the main body. As a major strategic measure to promote natural ecological protection, build a beautiful China, and promote harmony between humanity and nature, its purpose is to “maintain the authenticity and integrity of natural ecosystems, protect biodiversity, protect ecological security barriers, and leave precious natural assets for future generations.” Clearly, this institutional measure not only plays an important role in promoting domestic ecological progress and jointly creating a world ecological civilization, but will also further promote the practice, implementation, gestation, and expansion of concepts such as respecting nature, the idea that mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts are a life community, and ecological protection first across the whole society.

比如，党的十八大之后，党中央、国务院制定实施“（持续深入）打好（赢）污染防治攻坚战”战略行动的基本依据就是，我国的生态环境保护治理虽然取得了一些显著成绩，但也出现了资源约束趋紧、环境污染严重、生态系统退化的十分严峻的整体形势。全国大范围长时间的雾霾污染天气，突出表明了经济社会现代化进程中变得日益尖锐的人与自然矛盾，并在不同程度上影响到人民群众的正常生产生活。因而，治理环境污染、解决突出环境问题，既是为了给广大人民群众创造良好的生产生活环境，也是意在不断树立与增强全党全社会的尊重自然意识。再比如，创建以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系，作为我国推进自然生态保护、建设美丽中国、促进人与自然和谐共生的一项重大战略举措，其目的就是为了“保持自然生态系统的原真性和完整性，保护生物多样性，保护生态安全屏障，给子孙后代留下珍贵的自然资产”。很显然，这一制度举措不仅具有促进国内生态文明建设、携手创造世界生态文明的重要推动作用，也将会进一步推进全社会范围内尊重自然、山水林田湖草沙是生命共同体、生态保护第一等理念的践行落实与孕育扩展。

A typical example reflecting China’s awareness and action of respecting nature is the construction of the Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm in Hebei Province. This forest farm is located directly north of the capital Beijing, like a green eagle spreading its wings, tightly guarding the southern edge of the Hunshandake Sandy Land in Inner Mongolia, and connected with the dense forests of Chengde, Zhangjiakou, and other places in Hebei, forming a wind and sand barrier and water source guardian for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and North China. In the 1950s, Saihanba was a place with no vegetation and swirling yellow sand, but since the establishment of the forest farm in 1962, through the hard work of three generations, the world’s largest area of planted forest has been built here. Equally important are the gradually restored natural ecosystems of interlaced grasslands and wetlands, as well as natural vegetation communities. The good ecological environment and rich species resources are making Saihanba a natural gene bank for animal and plant species. The ideological cornerstone supporting this “human miracle” of turning wasteland into a forest sea is precisely the awareness of respecting nature, which is an organic part of the Saihanba spirit, namely “remembering the mission, working hard through hardship, and green development.” Natural ecosystems are organic living entities, thus possessing a certain capacity for self-regulation, self-purification, and self-recovery. To thoroughly heal the damage caused by humans to nature, it is necessary to fully understand and respect the laws of natural ecology, giving nature enough time and space to recuperate. Based on this understanding, during the construction of the Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm, a scientific and truth-seeking attitude was firmly adopted to successively overcome a series of technical difficulties in breeding, afforestation, and forest protection, while moderate artificial restoration measures were limited to areas with severe ecological damage that could not recover on their own, thereby creating conditions and an environment for natural self-recovery.

体现我国尊重自然意识与行动的典型实例，是河北塞罕坝机械林场建设。该林场位于首都北京的正北方，就像一只展开双翅的绿色雄鹰，紧紧扼守内蒙古浑善达克沙地南缘，并与河北承德、张家口等地的茂密森林连成一体，构成京津冀和华北地区的风沙屏障、水源卫士。20世纪50年代的塞罕坝，曾是草木不见、黄沙弥漫，但自1962年建立林场以来，靠着三代人的艰苦努力，这里建起了世界上面积最大的人工林。同样重要的还有逐步得到修复的草原、湿地交错带自然生态系统以及天然植被群落，而良好的生态环境和丰富的物种资源，正在使塞罕坝成为天然的动植物物种基因库。支撑这一荒原变林海“人间奇迹”的思想基石，正是作为塞罕坝精神即“牢记使命、艰苦创业、绿色发展”有机组成部分的尊重自然意识。自然生态系统是一个有机生命体，因而具有一定的自我调节、自我净化、自我恢复的能力，而要想彻底治愈人类对大自然造成的伤害，就必须充分认识尊重自然生态规律，给大自然足够的时间和空间来休养生息。正是基于上述认识，在建设塞罕坝机械林场过程中，既坚决采取科学与实事求是的态度先后突破了育种、造林和护林上的一系列技术难题，也将适度人工修复措施限制在那些生态受损严重、依靠自身难以恢复的区域，从而为自然自我恢复创造条件和环境。

2. Following Nature

2.顺应自然

Compared with “respecting nature,” “conforming to nature” emphasizes that human society, in the process of economic and social modernization, should actively adapt to the characteristics, rhythms, and changes of natural ecosystems and their constituent elements. On the one hand, ecosystems within nature and their constituent elements often possess their own attribute properties and structural features, thus objectively requiring that people (society) form relational frameworks with distinct characteristics in relation to them. For example, although forests and grasslands are both fundamental constituent elements of ecosystems, the relationship between humans and forests and the relationship between humans and grasslands still differ in many respects. On the other hand, the natural ecological conditions that serve as the foundation of human society and civilization are not fixed but are in a state of ceaseless evolution; hence, contemporary economic and social development must actively adapt, conform to the times, and change accordingly. Against the backdrop of ecological civilization construction in the New Era, the core practical and policy prescriptive requirement of “conforming to nature” is: “We must deepen our understanding of the laws governing the community of life between humanity and nature, and comprehensively accelerate ecological civilization construction… More and more human activities are constantly touching the boundaries and bottom lines of natural ecology. We must safeguard the safety boundaries and bottom lines for nature, forming a pattern of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.” [6]6 This is a quotation from a speech by Xi Jinping on urban and rural planning, emphasizing the preservation of natural and rural characteristics.

与“尊重自然”相比，“顺应自然”强调的是，人类社会在经济社会现代化发展过程中，应当主动适应自然生态系统及其构成性元素的特点、节律与变化。一方面，自然界内部的生态系统及其构成性元素往往具有自身的属性特点和结构特征，因而客观上要求人（社会）与之形成具有各自特点的关系架构。比如，尽管森林与草原都是生态系统的基础性构成元素，人与森林的关系和人与草原的关系，仍具有许多方面的不同。另一方面，作为人类社会与文明形态基础的自然生态条件，也不是固定不变的，而是处在永不停息的演进过程之中，因而当代经济社会发展需要作出主动适应、因时顺势而变。在新时代生态文明建设的背景下，“顺应自然”的核心性实践与政策规约要求是，“要深化对人与自然生命共同体的规律性认识，全面加快生态文明建设……越来越多的人类活动不断触及自然生态的边界和底线。要为自然守住安全边界和底线，形成人与自然和谐共生的格局”。

Regarding active compliance with and adaptation to the natural ecological environment, the basic objective requirement is to “optimize the spatial development pattern of territorial space,” coordinating population distribution, economic layout, land use, and ecological environmental protection, scientifically arranging production space, living space, and ecological space, leaving more room for nature to restore itself, leaving more fertile farmland for agriculture, and leaving a beautiful homeland of blue skies, green earth, and clean water for future generations. The main practical and policy lever in this regard is the national “strategy of functional zones for territorial development” [7]7 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping, referring to China's commitments to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. systematically formulated and continuously advanced by the Party and government. According to this strategic deployment, corresponding to the national ecological environment functional zoning, China’s territorial spatial development framework is divided into four major parts: optimized development, key development, restricted development, and prohibited development. Then, based on this, ecological red lines are delineated and strictly observed in important ecological function areas, land and marine ecological environment sensitive areas, and fragile areas, thereby gradually constructing a scientifically rational pattern for urbanization advancement, agricultural development, and ecological security.

在主动顺从与适应自然生态环境上，其基本目标要求是“优化国土空间开发格局”，统筹人口分布、经济布局、国土利用、生态环境保护，科学布局生产空间、生活空间、生态空间，给自然留下更多修复空间，给农业留下更多良田，给子孙后代留下天蓝、地绿、水净的美好家园。这方面的主要实践与政策抓手，就是党和政府系统制定并持续推进的国家“主体功能区战略”。按照这一战略部署，与全国生态环境功能区划相对应，我国的国土空间开发构架，划分为优化开发、重点开发、限制开发、禁止开发四大部分，然后依此在重要生态功能区、陆地和海洋生态环境敏感区与脆弱区划定并严守生态红线，从而逐步构建起科学合理的城镇化推进格局、农业发展格局和生态安全格局。

The cornerstone of optimizing the spatial development pattern of territorial space or implementing the strategy of functional zones for territorial development is the concept of “ecological red lines” or “conforming to nature,” which represents an epochal transformation in the outlook on economic and social development and the concept of the relationship between humanity and nature. Without such a profound innovation at the level of conceptual consciousness, this strategic measure will be difficult to implement effectively. The result would be that not only would the overall trend of ecological environmental degradation be hard to fundamentally reverse, but other ecological environment development goals already envisioned and formulated would also be difficult to achieve.

优化国土空间开发格局或实施主体功能区战略的基石，是“生态红线”或“顺应自然”观念，是经济社会发展观和人与自然关系理念的划时代变革。如果没有这样一种观念意识层面上的深刻革新，这一战略举措将很难落到实处。其结果则是，不仅生态环境恶化的总趋势很难从根本上得到扭转，而且已经设想制定的其他生态环境发展目标也难以实现。

Regarding the profound implications of “conforming to nature,” General Secretary Xi Jinping, when discussing strengthening

对于“顺从自然”的深刻意涵，习近平总书记在论述加强黄河流域生态环境保护时，就着重强调了“以水而定、量水而行，因地制宜、分类施策，上下游、干支流、左右岸统筹谋划”的方法论意蕴。具体地说，上游要以三江源、祁连山、甘南黄河上游水源涵养区等为重点，推进实施一批重大生态保护修复和建设工程，提升水源涵养能力；中游要突出抓好水土保持和污染治理；下游要重点做好黄河三角洲保护工作，促进河流生态系统健康，提高生物多样性。此外，2021年10月习近平总书记在黄河入海口考察时，还特别强调了因地制宜的耐盐碱作物培植——从治理盐碱地转到培育适应植物——的重要性，指出耐盐碱作物发展对保障中国粮仓、中国饭碗具有重要作用。

In terms of actively adjusting and rationalizing urban and rural planning and construction, on the one hand, it is necessary to fully consider the possible impacts of development and construction on urban and rural natural ecosystems, such as ecological elements like woodlands, grasslands, lakes, and wetlands within urban areas. In particular, it is essential to avoid or suppress water shortages (water pollution) or air quality problems caused by human factors by conforming to nature rather than disrupting natural systems. On the other hand, "we must integrate cities into nature... so that residents can see mountains, view water, and remember their nostalgia," and "in building a new countryside, attention must be paid to protecting the ecological environment, preserving local characteristics, reflecting rural features, and maintaining the rural landscape." [6]6 This is a quotation from a speech by Xi Jinping on urban and rural planning, emphasizing the preservation of natural and rural characteristics. Therefore, just as in urban development and construction we should try to avoid transplanting large trees into cities, leveling mountains for land, creating artificial landscapes, and filling lakes and seas, in new rural development and construction we must also be cautious about cutting down trees, prohibit digging up mountains, refrain from filling lakes, and minimize demolishing houses. This is because such practices do not build an ecological civilization but rather destroy natural ecology; what is gained is merely "fake ecology" and "pseudo-landscapes," while what is lost is the true urban scenery and rural beauty.

在主动调整与合理化城乡规划建设上，一方面，要充分考虑发展建设对城乡自然生态系统可能造成的影响，比如城市范围内的林地、草地、湖泊、湿地等生态要素，尤其是要通过顺应自然而不是打破自然系统，来避免或抑制人为原因所导致的缺水（水污染）或大气质量问题。另一方面，“要让城市融入大自然……让居民望得见山、看得见水、记得住乡愁”，“搞新农村建设要注意生态环境保护，注意乡土味道，体现农村特点，保留乡村风貌”。因而，就像城市发展建设中应尽量避免大树进城、开山造地、人造景观、填湖填海一样，新农村发展建设中也要慎砍树、禁挖山、不填湖、少拆房。因为，这些做法并不是建设生态文明，而是破坏自然生态，获得的只是一些“假生态”“伪景观”，消失的却是真正的城市风景、乡村美景。

In terms of actively adapting to global climate change and its impacts, on the one hand, global climate change, like other ecological and environmental problems, is ultimately a matter of modern development models and lifestyles. Therefore, establishing and improving a green, low-carbon, and circular development economic system and promoting a comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development are the fundamental strategies for China to address and resolve the issue of global climate change. But on the other hand, "achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is a solemn commitment China has made to the world, and it is also a broad and profound economic and social transformation that is by no means easy to accomplish." [7]7 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping, referring to China's commitments to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The key point here is that it must be acknowledged that global climate change and its impacts on the economic and social development and production and life of countries around the world, including China, are undeniable objective facts. Therefore, whether from the perspective of safeguarding our own interests, fulfilling international responsibilities, or obligations as global citizens, we must take it seriously, shoulder our responsibilities courageously, and cooperate sincerely. Among these efforts, in addition to actively mitigating global climate change and its impacts, it also includes actively adapting to such changes and their effects. For example, the increasingly frequent extreme rain and snow events and hot weather in China in recent years are likely to be persistent or trend-based changes that are difficult to reverse, requiring us to make more forward-looking specific institutional and policy responses.

在主动适应全球气候变化及其影响上，一方面，全球气候变化像其他生态环境问题一样，归根到底是现代发展方式和生活方式问题。因而，建立健全绿色低碳循环发展经济体系、促进经济社会发展全面绿色转型，是我国应对与解决全球气候变化问题的根本之策。但另一方面，“实现碳达峰、碳中和是我国向世界作出的庄严承诺，也是一场广泛而深刻的经济社会变革，绝不是轻轻松松就能实现的”。这里的关键点是，必须承认，全球气候变化及其对于包括我国在内的世界各国经济社会发展与生产生活的影响是不容否认的客观事实。因而，无论是从维护自身利益、履行国际责任还是地球公民义务的角度来说，我们都必须认真对待、勇于担当、真诚合作。而这其中，除了对于全球气候变化及其影响的积极抑制，还包括对于这种变化及其影响的主动适应。比如，我国近年来日益频繁出现的极端雨雪事件和炎热天气，大概率是一种难以逆转的持续性或趋势性变化，需要我们作出更具前瞻性的具体制度与政策响应。

3. Protecting Nature

3.保护自然

Compared with "respecting nature," "protecting nature" emphasizes that human society, in the process of economic and social modernization, should as far as possible maintain and preserve the dynamic equilibrium cycle and the diversity, stability, and sustainability of the natural ecosystems in which it is embedded, so as to enjoy a more comfortable and livable ecological environment. On the one hand, ecological and environmental protection and governance, including various public management systems and policies in contemporary society, are first and foremost oriented toward and serve to enhance the well-being of human life. That is to say, a good ecological environment is both a universal social and political concern for people's livelihoods and the most inclusive and fairest public good or livelihood welfare. But on the other hand, ecological and environmental protection and governance are based on and embodied in the respect for and conformity to the objective conditions, properties, and laws of natural ecosystems and their constituent elements, and thus constitute a green regulation of human production and living activities. Moreover, with the deepening and expansion of economic and social modernization and the increasing environmental and social awareness of the public, the technological content and ecological implications required for ecological and environmental protection and governance are gradually rising. In short, "we must resolve the contradictions brought about by industrial civilization, confine human activities within the limits that the ecological environment can bear, and carry out integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts." [8]8 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping, advocating for holistic ecological protection and governance of diverse natural elements.

与“尊重自然”相比，“保护自然”强调的是，人类社会在经济社会现代化发展过程中，理应尽可能保持与维护所处其中的自然生态系统的动态平衡循环与多样性、稳定性、持续性，以便享有更加舒适宜居的生态环境。一方面，当代社会中包括各种公共管理制度与政策在内的生态环境保护治理，都首先是面向和服务于提升人类生活福祉的。也就是说，良好的生态环境既是普遍的民生社会政治关切，也是最普惠、最公平的公共产品或民生福祉。但另一方面，生态环境保护治理又基于并体现为对自然生态系统及其构成性元素的客观状况、性质与规律的尊重和顺应，因而是对人类生产与生活活动的绿色规约。而且，随着经济社会现代化发展的不断深入拓展和公众环境社会意识的日益提高，生态环境保护治理的科技含量和生态意蕴要求都在逐渐提升。总之，“我们要解决好工业文明带来的矛盾，把人类活动限制在生态环境能够承受的限度内，对山水林田湖草沙进行一体化保护和系统治理”。

The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC [9]9 The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in October 2022. proposes that to advance the building of a Beautiful China, it is necessary to “persist in the integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, and deserts, coordinate industrial restructuring, pollution control, ecological protection, and climate response, synergistically advance carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and economic growth, and promote ecological priority, conservation and intensive use, and green and low-carbon development.” Accordingly, on the new journey of the New Era, China’s ecological environmental protection and governance, or the principle and concept of “protecting nature,” will focus on the following four public policy issue areas: integrated protection and governance of natural ecosystems, coordination and overall planning of ecological environmental protection and governance, synergistic advancement of ecological environmental protection and economic development, and the overall promotion of ecological priority and green development. It is not difficult to see that the systematic, three-dimensional concept of ecological environmental protection or governance particularly embodies the characteristics of China’s socialist ecological civilization construction.

党的二十大报告提出，推进美丽中国建设，必须“坚持山水林田湖草沙一体化保护和系统治理，统筹产业结构调整、污染治理、生态保护、应对气候变化，协同推进降碳、减污、扩绿、增长，推进生态优先、节约集约、绿色低碳发展”。依此，新时代新征程，我国的生态环境保护治理或“保护自然”理念原则，将聚焦于如下四个公共政策议题领域：自然生态系统的一体化保护治理、生态环境保护治理的协调统筹、生态环境保护与经济发展的协同推进、生态优先绿色发展的整体推进。不难发现，系统性、立体化的生态环境保护或治理理念尤其体现了我国社会主义生态文明建设的特质。

In the protection and governance of natural ecosystems, it is necessary to focus on the integrated conservation and restoration of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, and deserts, continuously improve the quality and stability of ecosystems, and restore nature to a state of tranquility, harmony, and beauty. The diversity, stability, and sustainability of ecosystems are both an inevitable requirement for increasing the supply of high-quality ecological products and an important means of mitigating and adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. Therefore, it is very important to take key national ecological function zones, ecological protection redlines, and nature reserves as focal points, and to continuously and accelerate the implementation of strategic measures such as major projects for the protection and restoration of important ecosystems (for example, the “Three-North” Shelterbelt Forest Program [10]10 The “Three-North” Shelterbelt Forest Program is a large-scale afforestation project covering northwest, north, and northeast China, initiated in 1978.) and major projects for biodiversity protection, especially vigorously advancing the construction of a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body.

在自然生态系统保护治理上，需要着重做好山水林田湖草沙的一体化保持与修复，不断提升生态系统质量和稳定性，还自然宁静、和谐、美丽。生态系统多样性、稳定性、持续性，既是增加优质生态产品供给的必然要求，也是减缓和适应气候变化带来的不利影响的重要手段。因而，十分重要的是，以国家重点生态功能区、生态保护红线、自然保护地等为重点，持续与加快实施重要生态系统保护和修复重大工程（比如“三北”防护林工程）、生物多样性保护重大工程等战略举措，尤其是大力推进以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系建设。

In ecological environmental protection and governance, it is necessary to deeply advance the prevention and control of environmental pollution, persist in precise pollution control, scientific pollution control, and law-based pollution control, and continuously and deeply fight the battles to defend blue skies, clear waters, and clean soil, so that our motherland has bluer skies, greener mountains, and cleaner waters. It must be made clear that although since the 18th National Congress of the CPC [11]11 The 18th National Congress of the CPC was held in November 2012, marking the beginning of the Xi Jinping era. China’s ecological environmental protection and governance have undergone historic, transformative, and overall changes, especially substantially solving a series of prominent environmental problems affecting the production and daily life of the people, allowing the common people to truly feel the improvement in ecological environmental quality, the restoration and improvement of the ecological environment is a process that requires long-term hard work, cannot be achieved overnight, and must be persisted in unremittingly and with vigor. Therefore, we must also long adhere to the policy of giving priority to conservation, protection, and natural restoration, maintain strategic focus, coordinate pollution control, ecological protection, and climate response, and promote the continuous improvement of the ecological environment.

在生态环境保护治理上，需要深入推进环境污染防治，坚持精准治污、科学治污、依法治污，持续深入打好蓝天、碧水、净土保卫战，让我们的祖国天更蓝、山更绿、水更清。必须明确，尽管党的十八大以来我国的生态环境保护治理发生了历史性、转折性、全局性变化，尤其是实质性解决了影响人民群众生产生活的一系列突出环境问题，让老百姓实实在在感受到了生态环境质量改善，但生态环境的修复和改善，是一个需要付出长期艰苦努力的过程，不可能一蹴而就，必须坚持不懈、奋发有为。因而，我们还必须长期坚持节约优先、保护优先、自然恢复为主的方针，保持战略定力，统筹污染治理、生态保护、应对气候变化，促进生态环境持续改善。

In promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, it is necessary to take actively and prudently advancing the strategy of carbon peak and carbon neutrality and achieving synergistic effects in pollution reduction and carbon reduction as the overall lever, accelerate the adjustment and upgrading of industrial structure, economic structure, energy structure, and the structure of territorial space development and utilization, promote the comprehensive green transformation of economic development modes and production and lifestyle, and gradually establish and improve a green, low-carbon, and circular development economic system, energy system, technology system, and mass lifestyle. At the same time, it is also necessary to improve the modern environmental governance system led by Party committees, dominated by the government, with enterprises as the main body, and involving social organizations and the public, and continuously raise the level of modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity in the ecological and environmental field. In short, “building an ecological civilization and promoting green, low-carbon, and circular development can not only meet the people’s growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment but also promote the achievement of higher-quality, more efficient, fairer, more sustainable, and safer development, blazing a path of civilized development featuring production development, affluent living, and a sound ecology.”

在促进经济社会发展全面绿色转型上，需要以积极稳妥推进碳达峰碳中和战略、实现减污降碳协同增效为总抓手，加快推进产业结构、经济结构、能源结构和国土空间开发利用结构的调整升级，促进经济发展方式和生产生活方式的全面绿色转型，逐步建立健全绿色低碳循环发展的经济体系、能源体系、技术体系和大众生活方式。同时，还需要健全党委领导、政府主导、企业主体、社会组织和公众参与的现代环境治理体系，不断提高生态环境领域的国家治理体系和治理能力现代化水平。总之，“建设生态文明、推动绿色低碳循环发展，不仅可以满足人民日益增长的优美生态环境需要，而且可以推动实现更高质量、更有效率、更加公平、更可持续、更为安全的发展，走出一条生产发展、生活富裕、生态良好的文明发展道路”。

III. National Development Strategic Choice: Building a Chinese-path Modernization of Harmony between Humanity and Nature

三、 国家发展战略抉择：建设人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化

“Persisting in harmony between humanity and nature” from the perspective of Marxist ecology not only implies a new ecological material foundation for the concept of a community of life between humanity and nature and the ecological philosophical values and ethical concepts of respecting nature, conforming to nature, and protecting nature, but also contains or points to extremely profound national development strategic practices in the sense of human society and civilizational innovation. Specifically, it means firmly establishing and practicing the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” planning development from the height of harmony between humanity and nature, and comprehensively advancing a Chinese-path modernization of harmony between humanity and nature.

马克思主义生态学视域下的“坚持人与自然和谐共生”，不仅意味着人与自然生命共同体理念的崭新生态物质本原设定和尊重自然、顺应自然、保护自然的生态哲学价值与伦理观念，还蕴含着或指向极其深刻的人类社会和文明革新意义上的国家发展战略实践。具体地说，即牢固树立和践行“绿水青山就是金山银山”的理念，站在人与自然和谐共生的高度谋划发展，全面推进人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化。

1. Promoting harmony between humanity and nature is an essential requirement of Chinese-path modernization

1.促进人与自然和谐共生是中国式现代化的本质要求

The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC lists “promoting harmony between humanity and nature” as one of the essential requirements of Chinese-path modernization. In his speech at the 29th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee [12]12 The 19th CPC Central Committee was in office from 2017 to 2022., General Secretary Xi Jinping also emphasized, “Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have strengthened the Party’s overall leadership over ecological civilization construction, placed ecological civilization construction in a prominent position in overall work, and made a series of major strategic deployments… In the basic strategy of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, persisting in harmony between humanity and nature is one of them.” Therefore, an important practical direction for deepening the awareness of the community of life between humanity and nature and establishing the concept of respecting, conforming to, and protecting nature is to enhance the understanding that promoting harmony between humanity and nature is an essential requirement for building Chinese-path modernization.

党的二十大报告将“促进人与自然和谐共生”作为中国式现代化的本质要求之一。习近平总书记在主持中共十九届中央政治局第二十九次集体学习时的讲话中也强调，“党的十八大以来，我们加强党对生态文明建设的全面领导，把生态文明建设摆在全局工作的突出位置，作出一系列重大战略部署……在新时代坚持和发展中国特色社会主义的基本方略中，坚持人与自然和谐共生是其中一条”。因而，深化人与自然生命共同体意识、树立尊重自然顺应自然保护自然观念的重要实践指向，就是增强对促进人与自然和谐共生是建设中国式现代化的本质要求的认识。

On the one hand, the modernization we are building is socialist in nature. As the principal contradiction in Chinese society has transformed into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development, correspondingly, responding to the people’s aspirations for a better life, especially their eager expectations for accelerating the improvement of ecological environmental quality, has become a new mission and new pursuit of the ruling Party. That is to say, on the new journey of the New Era, comprehensively advancing Chinese-path modernization most importantly means adhering to a people-centered approach, actively responding to what the people think, hope for, and urgently need, vigorously advancing ecological civilization construction, providing society with more high-quality ecological products, and continuously meeting the people’s growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment.

一方面，我们要建设的现代化是社会主义性质的现代化。随着我国社会主要矛盾已转变成人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾，相应地，回应人民群众对美好生活的向往尤其是对加快提高生态环境质量的热切期盼，就成为执政党的新使命新追求。也就是说，新时代新征程全面推进中国式现代化，最为重要的就是坚持以人民为中心，积极回应人民群众所想、所盼、所急，大力推进生态文明建设，向社会提供更多优质生态产品，不断满足人民日益增长的优美生态环境需要。

At the same time, doing a good job in ecological civilization construction is a plus point for socialism with Chinese characteristics at the international level, and will greatly increase the attractiveness of the Chinese-path modernization plan and path. Accompanying the concept and model of modernization in Western Europe and the United States is a rapacious and severely unjust configuration of the relationship between humanity and nature, which has triggered critical reflection on the capitalist development model. Therefore, ecological civilization construction is an important feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. The overall goal of building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, and its practical advancement, will simultaneously be a major contribution to the development of world socialism and the progress of human civilization.

同时，生态文明建设做好了，在国际层面上对中国特色社会主义是加分项，并会大大增加中国式现代化方案与道路的吸引力。与欧美西方国家现代化理念与模式相伴生的，是一种肆意攫取性的和严重不公正的人与自然关系构型，并由此引发了人们对于资本主义发展模式的批判性反思。因而，生态文明建设是新时代中国特色社会主义的一个重要特征。我国富强民主文明和谐美丽的社会主义现代化强国建设总目标及其现实推进，将同时是对世界社会主义发展和人类文明进步的重大贡献。

On the other hand, what we are building is the economic and social modernization of a large developing country. Therefore, we can neither simply accept the natural resource consumption and material living consumption standards of a few developed countries in Europe and America—if we did, even several more Earths would not be enough for Chinese consumption—nor can we simply imitate the old development path taken by a few industrialized and urbanized countries. We can only take the path of scientific development and strive to build a Chinese-path modernization of harmony between humanity and nature.

另一方面，我们正在建设的是作为一个发展中大国的经济社会现代化。因而，我们既不可能简单接受少数欧美发达国家的自然资源消耗和物质生活消费标准，如果那样的话，再有几个地球也不够中国人消耗，也无法简单模仿少数工业化城市化国家走过的发展老路，而只能走科学发展之路，努力建设人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化。

From the perspective of China’s modernization practice, although significant achievements have been made in ecological environmental protection and governance, especially in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, China’s ecological civilization construction still faces many contradictions and challenges. The foundation for the ecological environment to stabilize and improve is not yet solid, the inflection point from quantitative to qualitative change has not yet arrived, and there is still a considerable gap between the quality of the ecological environment and the people’s expectations for a better life, the goal of building a Beautiful China, and the requirements of building a new development pattern, promoting high-quality development, and comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Therefore, on the new journey of the New Era, we must deeply grasp the new requirements that entering a new stage of development, implementing the new development philosophy, and building a new development pattern place on ecological civilization construction, comprehensively understand the new situation facing China’s ecological civilization construction, and commit to promoting the construction of a Chinese-path modernization of harmony between humanity and nature.

从我国的现代化实践进程来看，尽管生态环境保护治理尤其是国家治理体系与治理能力现代化建设成效显著，但我国生态文明建设仍然面临着诸多矛盾和挑战，生态环境稳中向好的基础还不牢固，从量变到质变的拐点还没有到来，生态环境质量同广大人民群众对美好生活的期盼相比，同建设美丽中国的目标相比，同构建新发展格局、推动高质量发展、全面建设社会主义现代化国家的要求相比，都还存在着较大差距。因而，新时代新征程，我们必须深刻把握进入新发展阶段、贯彻新发展理念、构建新发展格局对生态文明建设提出的新要求，全面认识我国生态文明建设面临的新形势，致力于推动建设人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化。

2. Simultaneously advancing material civilization and ecological civilization construction

2.同步推进物质文明建设和生态文明建设

When General Secretary Xi Jinping elaborated on the characteristics and fundamental requirements of Chinese-path modernization regarding harmony between humanity and nature, he explicitly emphasized “focusing on simultaneously advancing material civilization and ecological civilization.” It is not difficult to see that the key point remains correctly understanding and handling the dialectical relationship between economic growth and ecological environmental protection, between socioeconomic modernization and harmony between humanity and nature, and between material civilization construction and ecological civilization construction.

习近平总书记在阐释中国式现代化的人与自然和谐共生特征以及根本要求时，明确强调“注重同步推进物质文明建设和生态文明建设”。不难看出，重点仍是正确理解并处理好经济增长和生态环境保护、经济社会现代化发展和人与自然和谐共生、物质文明建设和生态文明建设之间的辩证关系。

On the one hand, from a diachronic perspective, “material civilization construction” and “ecological civilization construction” were respectively proposed or emphasized as important contents or constituent elements of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the former was put forward earlier in time, juxtaposed with “cultural-ethical progress” to form a holistic expression, such as “grasping both civilizations simultaneously.” [13]13 “Grasping both civilizations simultaneously” refers to the policy of advancing both material civilization and cultural-ethical progress, a formulation dating from the early reform and opening up period. Later, the Party and government successively put forward new expressions such as the “Three-Sphere Integrated Plan” [14]14 The “Three-Sphere Integrated Plan” refers to the overall layout of economic, political, and cultural construction, introduced after the 16th National Congress of the CPC in 2002. and the “Four-Sphere Integrated Plan,” [15]15 The “Four-Sphere Integrated Plan” added social construction to the previous three spheres, introduced after the 17th National Congress of the CPC in 2007. until the 2012 Report to the 18th National Congress of the CPC explicitly proposed the latest summary of the “Five-Sphere Integrated Plan” (economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction), indicating the Party and government’s increasingly comprehensive and profound understanding of the goals and overall layout of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the practice of governance. It should be noted that although “material civilization construction” is in most cases equated with “economic construction,” the theoretical and policy implications of “material civilization construction” in the sense corresponding to “cultural-ethical progress” are not limited to this, but also include many contents of political construction, social construction, cultural construction, and even ecological civilization construction. In a narrow sense, “material civilization construction” and “ecological civilization construction” are more of a dialectical relationship that is interconnected and mutually supportive, yet also contains certain tensions and contradictions. For example, the 2017 Report to the 19th National Congress of the CPC, when elaborating the modernization strategic goals up to the middle of this century, explicitly used the expression that “China’s material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological civilizations will be comprehensively enhanced.”

一方面，从历时性的角度来说，“物质文明建设”和“生态文明建设”是分别作为中国特色社会主义事业的重要内容或构成元素来提出或强调的，而且在时间上前者要更早一些，并与“精神文明建设”相并列成为一个整体性表述，比如“两个文明一起抓”。后来，党和政府又陆续提出了“三位一体”“四位一体”等新表述，直至2012年党的十八大报告明确提出“五位一体”（经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设和生态文明建设）的最新概括，表明党和政府在治国理政实践中对于中国特色社会主义事业建设目标追求和总体布局的日益全面深刻的认识。需要指出的是，“物质文明建设”尽管在大多数情况下被等同于“经济建设”，但与“精神文明建设”相对应意义上的“物质文明建设”，其理论与政策意涵并不局限于此，而是还包括政治建设、社会建设和文化建设甚至生态文明建设中的许多内容。狭义上的“物质文明建设”与“生态文明建设”更多是一种相互关联、互为支撑，但同时又存在一定张力矛盾的辩证关系。比如，2017年党的十九大报告在阐述到21世纪中叶的现代化战略目标时，就明确使用了“我国物质文明、政治文明、精神文明、社会文明、生态文明将全面提升”的表述。

On the other hand, it must be recognized that both ecological civilization construction and Chinese-path modernization constitute a unified system of discourse theory, institutional policies, and social practice. Specifically, “ecological civilization construction” is a systematic whole comprising “five ones”: in the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan, ecological civilization construction is one sphere; in the basic strategy for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, adhering to harmony between humanity and nature is one component; in the new development philosophy, green development is one element; in the three critical battles, [16]16 The “three critical battles” refer to the battles against major risks, poverty, and pollution, as identified in the Report to the 19th National Congress of the CPC in 2017. pollution prevention and control is one battle; in the goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects by the middle of this century, a beautiful China is one goal. Similarly, “Chinese-path modernization” is also a systematic whole composed of several common features and five distinctive features: modernization of a huge population, modernization of common prosperity for all, modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement in tandem, modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, and modernization of peaceful development. Moreover, the unique “six outlooks” contained in the theory of “Chinese-path modernization”—namely, world outlook, values, historical outlook, civilization outlook, democracy outlook, and ecological outlook—and their great practice also constitute a systematic and complete whole. Therefore, we need to understand the relationship between material civilization construction and ecological civilization construction more from the perspective of a unified whole and coordinated advancement, and especially must not separate or even oppose them. It must always be clear that in contemporary society, there cannot be an ecological civilization detached from the economic foundation provided by material civilization, nor can there be a healthy and sustainable material civilization that violates the norms of ecological civilization.

另一方面，必须看到，无论是生态文明建设还是中国式现代化建设，都是一个统一性的话语理论、制度政策和社会实践体系。具体而言，“生态文明建设”是一个包括“五个一”的系统性整体：在“五位一体”总体布局中，生态文明建设是其中一位；在新时代坚持和发展中国特色社会主义的基本方略中，坚持人与自然和谐共生是其中一条；在新发展理念中，绿色是其中一项；在三大攻坚战中，污染防治是其中一战；在到21世纪中叶全面建成社会主义现代化强国目标中，美丽中国是其中一个。同样，“中国式现代化”也是一个由若干共同特征和五个独特特征组成的系统性整体：人口规模巨大的现代化、全体人民共同富裕的现代化、物质文明和精神文明相协调的现代化、人与自然和谐共生的现代化、走和平发展道路的现代化。此外，“中国式现代化”理论所蕴含的独特“六观”，即世界观、价值观、历史观、文明观、民主观、生态观及其伟大实践，也是一个系统完整的整体。因而，我们需要更多从统一整体、协同推进的意义上来理解物质文明建设和生态文明建设之间的关系，尤其不能将其割裂甚或对立起来。必须始终明确，当代社会中不可能存在脱离物质文明所提供的经济基础的生态文明，同样也不会有悖逆生态文明准则的健康持续的物质文明。

3. Planning development from the height of harmony between humanity and nature

3.站在人与自然和谐共生的高度谋划发展

On the new journey of the New Era, the most specific and important social practice and national strategic requirement for adhering to the Marxist ecological concept that humanity and nature are a community of life and practicing the ecological civilization concept of respecting, conforming to, and protecting nature is to plan economic and social development from the height of harmony between humanity and nature, and comprehensively advance the construction of Chinese-path modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature.

新时代新征程，坚持人与自然是生命共同体的马克思主义生态学理念，践行尊重自然、顺应自然、保护自然的生态文明观念，最为具体和重要的社会实践与国家战略要求，就是站在人与自然和谐共生的高度谋划经济社会发展，全面推进建设人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化。

On the one hand, fully implement the major strategic deployments and task requirements for ecological civilization construction determined by the 20th National Congress of the CPC, as well as the various task requirements for deepening ecological civilization system reform further planned and deployed by the “Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese-Path Modernization” adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, vigorously promote the construction of a beautiful China and jointly build a clean and beautiful world. Accelerate the green transformation of the development model, promote the formation of green and low-carbon production methods and lifestyles, and establish and improve a green, low-carbon, and circular development economic system; deeply advance pollution prevention and control, continue to fight the battles to protect blue skies, clear waters, and clean soil, and steadily improve the quality of urban and rural ecological environments; enhance the diversity, stability, and sustainability of ecosystems, leverage China’s leading role as a major developing country, jointly build a community of life on Earth, and make new contributions to global ecological environmental security and ecological civilization construction; actively and prudently advance carbon peak and carbon neutrality, continuously raise the level of modernization of China’s national governance system and governance capacity in the ecological environment field, demonstrate China’s image as a responsible major country, actively participate in global governance on climate change, and promote a broad and profound green transformation of the international economic and social structure.

一方面，全面贯彻落实党的二十大所确定的生态文明建设重大战略部署及任务要求，以及党的二十届三中全会作出的《中共中央关于进一步全面深化改革、推进中国式现代化的决定》进一步规划部署的深化生态文明体制改革各项任务要求，大力推进美丽中国建设、共建清洁美丽世界。加快发展方式绿色转型，推动形成绿色低碳的生产方式和生活方式，建立健全绿色低碳循环发展经济体系；深入推进环境污染防治，继续打好蓝天、碧水、净土保卫战，持续推动城乡生态环境质量稳定改善；提升生态系统多样性、稳定性、持续性，发挥我国作为发展中大国的引领作用，共建地球生命共同体，为全球生态环境安全和生态文明建设作出新贡献；积极稳妥推进碳达峰碳中和，不断提高我国生态环境领域国家治理体系和治理能力现代化水平，展现我国负责任大国形象，积极参与应对气候变化全球治理，促进国际经济社会结构广泛而深刻的绿色转型。

On the other hand, deeply study and practice the latest theoretical achievements of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, especially correctly understand and handle several important relationships in advancing Chinese-path modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature on the new journey of the New Era. In his speech at the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection held in July 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that to continue advancing ecological civilization construction, it is necessary to take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era on ecological civilization as guidance and correctly handle the following five major relationships: the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, the relationship between key breakthroughs and coordinated governance, the relationship between natural restoration and artificial restoration, the relationship between external constraints and internal motivation, and the relationship between the “dual carbon” commitments and independent action. [17]17 The “dual carbon” commitments refer to China’s pledges to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. In other words, on the new journey of the New Era, we must scientifically understand and handle the relationship between high-quality economic development and high-level ecological environmental protection, the relationship between prioritizing and focusing on solving prominent ecological environmental problems and synergistically advancing the integrated protection and governance of natural ecosystems, the relationship between promoting and exerting the subjective initiative of human activities and following and respecting natural ecological laws, the relationship between correctly handling the constraining role of the legal system environment and the conscious awareness and action of social subjects, and the relationship between unswervingly honoring and fulfilling the “dual carbon” commitments and insisting on taking independent action.

另一方面，深入学习践行习近平生态文明思想最新理论成果，尤其是正确理解并处理好新时代新征程推进人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化进程中的若干重要关系。习近平总书记在2023年7月举行的全国生态环境保护大会上的讲话中明确指出，继续推进生态文明建设，必须以新时代中国特色社会主义生态文明思想为指导，正确处理如下五个重大关系：高质量发展和高水平保护的关系、重点攻坚和协同治理的关系、自然恢复和人工修复的关系、外部约束和内生动力的关系、“双碳”承诺和自主行动的关系。换言之，新时代新征程，我们要科学认识并处理好经济高质量发展与生态环境高水平保护之间的关系、优先重点解决突出生态环境问题与协同推进自然生态系统一体化保护治理之间的关系、弘扬发挥人类活动主体能动性与遵循尊重自然生态规律之间的关系、正确处理法律制度环境约束作用与社会主体认知行动自觉之间的关系、坚定不移信守履行“双碳”承诺与坚持采取自主行动之间的关系。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗