Article: To achieve a higher quality of opening up, the key is to deeply connect with the global green standard system
Today's world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and global economic and trade exchanges are threatened by conservatism and regional conflicts. Correspondingly, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in the pastpracticeNear-flatUnder the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with comrades at the core, China has implemented the new development concept, achieved steady growth in foreign economic and trade cooperation, continuously enhanced its ability to innovate in science and technology, continued to promote opening-up, and made positive progress in multi-party cooperation. In response to the new changing situation, the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to steadily expand the opening up of rules, regulations, management, standards and other institutions, which pointed out the direction for China's reform, opening up and high-quality development.
It is of great significance to seize the dominance of the green and low-carbon standard system
As an important technical foundation for global economic and trade exchanges and industrial cooperation, standards and rules are the "common language of the world" and the "passport" of international trade, affecting 80% of the world's trade and investment, and playing an important role in facilitating economic and trade exchanges, promoting scientific and technological innovation, eliminating technical barriers, and helping to build a new type of international economic and trade relations.
At the same time, the trend of carbon neutrality in the world is developing strongly, promoting low-carbon transformation and green development has increasingly become the consensus of the international community, and green, resilient and inclusive growth has become the mainstream policy direction of the international community. The "dual carbon" goal catalyzes the accelerated development of emerging industrial chains, supply chains, and value chains, and continuously gives rise to new economic growth points. According to preliminary predictions, in the next 30 years, "carbon neutrality" will bring hundreds of billions of green investment needs, involving energy, transportation, construction, industry and other development fields, triggering deep-seated economic and social changes, and also bringing new opportunities for China to build a new development pattern.
In the long run, as the issue of green economy continues to receive attention in international economic and trade exchanges, accelerating the interconnection of green rules, standards and systems will increasingly become an important international trend. However, with the intensification of the great power game, the politicization of green economy and environmental rules and standards has accelerated significantly. The competition for the dominance of international green economic and trade rules, low-carbon innovation systems and green standards has become increasingly fierce, and the binding force of the related international environmental and climate compliance clauses has become increasingly rigid, and the dominance of the green and low-carbon standard system has become one of the most important "rules of the game" in today's great power game.
For instance, in May 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden officially announced the launch of the Indo-Pacific Framework for a Prosperous Economy (IPEF) in Japan, which involves measures such as trade environmental standards, decarbonization, and harmonization of energy efficiency standards. In April 2023, the Council of the European Union voted to approve the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and four pieces of legislation related to the carbon market, including: the revision of the EU Carbon Market (ETS) Directive, the revision of the MRV rules for emissions from maritime vessels, the revision of the carbon market rules related to the aviation industry, and the regulation on the establishment of a social climate fund. On October 1, 2023, the CBAM officially began to be implemented. The essence of Europe and the United States in raising environmental standards, imposing carbon tariffs and seizing carbon pricing power is to seize the right to formulate international green and low-carbon rules, build barriers through green rules, and then form exclusive competitiveness and gain a new international competitive advantage.
Suggestions for in-depth docking with global low-carbon innovation and green standard systems
High-quality development requires high-level opening-up, and higher-quality opening-up is mainly reflected in the institutional level, that is, to promote relevant domestic rules and regulations to benchmark against international advanced standards, be in line with international standards, and reflect the consistency of supervision. As the largest developing country, China has taken the initiative to implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, deeply connected with the global low-carbon innovation and green standard system, and promoted the improvement of the green level of international circulation, which will build a positive peripheral space for domestic green and high-quality development, and should become an important direction and starting point for international cooperation on ecological and environmental to promote the construction of a new development pattern. To this end, it is advisable to:
The first is to take the docking of the green standard system as the focus of the external work of the ecological environment, participate in the formulation of new international green standards and rules more constructively, actively implement and guide the negotiation of international environmental conventions, treaties and protocols, and enhance China's right to speak from the right to formulate rules and set the agenda. Coordinate and promote bilateral and multilateral regional international cooperation on environmental protection, with the help of high-level policy dialogue mechanisms, take bilateral and multilateral environmental rules as the starting point, advocate the establishment of green rules and standards exchange topics, and accelerate the deep integration of industrial chains, supply chains and value chains of key industries in the region by promoting the mutual recognition and convergence of green standards and green trade rules, so as to comprehensively improve the level of green and low-carbon.
The second is to carry out in-depth comparative analysis of green and low-carbon standards and environmental regulatory systems at home and abroad. Focus on the environment and trade, solid waste and chemicals import and export management, biodiversity conservation, plastic pollution prevention and control, etc., strengthen the supply of new standards and systems, in key industries, key areas, key products, accelerate the formulation and revision of international investment and trade rules related to the field of ecological environment, docking with the global low-carbon innovation chain and international green standard system, facilitate the introduction of advanced green and low-carbon technologies, and continuously improve the ability of environmental system innovation and supervision.
The third is to take the digital green transformation as an opportunity to promote China's green and high-quality development achievements to benefit the world. Give full play to China's outstanding advantages in digital development and ecological governance technology, conform to the direction of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, seize the opportunity of green transformation and development, make full use of new information technologies such as 5G, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence in international environmental cooperation, enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of international environmental cooperation, help partners achieve a win-win situation of domestic ecological environment quality improvement and industrial technology optimization and progress, and share the fruits of green development with the international community. Establish and improve the standard and technical system of ecological environment for foreign investment and cooperation construction projects, continuously improve the environmental management level of foreign investment and cooperation construction projects, and promote the improvement of the green level of participation in international circulation.
Author Affilications: Zheng Jun, Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Zheng Linjiang, Shengzhou Municipal Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, Zhejiang Province
