Ning Ji Zhe’s Interpretation of the Green Development Index： We should abandon the heroic achievement view of GDP only.

　　CCTV News:According to the website of the National Bureau of Statistics, in order to implement the decision-making and deployment requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to promote the construction of ecological civilization, the National Bureau of Statistics, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Central Organization Department conducted an annual evaluation of the construction of ecological civilization in various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in 2016, and jointly issued the Bulletin of Annual Evaluation Results of Ecological Civilization Construction in 2016 (hereinafter referred to as the Bulletin). In order to facilitate the public to understand the significance, main contents and some concerns of the annual evaluation of ecological civilization construction, the reporter interviewed Ning Ji Zhe, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the National Bureau of Statistics, on the issues related to the annual evaluation.

　　Reporter:What is the significance of carrying out the annual evaluation of ecological civilization construction?

　　Ning Ji Zhe:The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a strategic decision to put ecological civilization construction in a prominent position and bring it into the overall layout of the "five in one" cause in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. In order to effectively promote the construction of ecological civilization, in 2015, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council successively issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions) and the Overall Plan for the Reform of Ecological Civilization System (hereinafter referred to as the Plan), which established the overall goal of China’s ecological civilization construction and the overall implementation plan for the reform of ecological civilization system. The "Opinions" and the "Plan" clearly put forward that it is necessary to improve the performance appraisal system, establish a target system, assessment methods and reward and punishment mechanisms that reflect the requirements of ecological civilization construction, and incorporate indicators such as resource consumption, environmental damage and ecological benefits into the economic and social development evaluation system. In 2016, reviewed and approved by the 27th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Reform, the General Offices of the General Office of the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council issued the Measures for the Evaluation and Assessment of Ecological Civilization Construction Goals (hereinafter referred to as the Measures), and the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Central Organization Department issued the Evaluation Target System for Ecological Civilization Construction and the Green Development Index System, thus forming a "one method, two systems".

　　The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a strategic plan to promote the overall layout of "five in one", coordinate and promote the strategic layout of "four comprehensive", accelerate the reform of ecological civilization system and build a beautiful China. The reform of ecological civilization system is a major change involving production mode, lifestyle, way of thinking and values. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that only by implementing the strictest system and the strictest rule of law can we provide a reliable guarantee for the construction of ecological civilization. It is necessary to firmly establish the socialist concept of ecological civilization, abandon the concept of development and achievements of "only talking about heroes in GDP", pay more attention to the coordination and unity of economic and social development and natural resources and environment, and build a harmonious and symbiotic modernization between man and nature. It is necessary to improve the evaluation system of economic and social development, making it an important guide and constraint to promote the construction of ecological civilization.

　　Carrying out the annual evaluation of ecological civilization construction based on "one method, two systems" is an important measure to implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the new era, and it is also a concrete measure to implement a series of decisions and arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on promoting ecological civilization construction, which has an important guiding role in improving the evaluation system of economic and social development, guiding all regions and departments to thoroughly implement the new development concept, and establishing a correct outlook on development and achievements. The annual evaluation focuses on guiding all regions to firmly establish the awareness of ecological civilization and consciously practice the concept of green development. It is the "indicator" and "weather vane" to urge and guide all regions to promote the construction of ecological civilization, and it is of great significance to promote the realization of the objectives of ecological civilization construction set by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

　　Reporter:What does the annual evaluation mainly include?

　　Ning Ji Zhe:According to the "Measures", the annual evaluation is carried out in accordance with the "Green Development Index System", which evaluates the overall progress of ecological civilization construction in each region in the previous year from seven aspects: resource utilization, environmental governance, environmental quality, ecological protection, growth quality, green life and public satisfaction, and guides each region to implement the work related to ecological civilization construction.

　　The annual evaluation work includes two parts: one is to calculate the green development index, that is, to calculate the green development index of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) by using 55 evaluation indexes in the first six aspects of the Green Development Index System, which comprehensively and objectively reflects the green development achievements of various regions; The second is to carry out a survey of public satisfaction with the ecological environment, and to understand the public’s subjective satisfaction with the ecological environment by organizing sampling surveys, highlighting the public’s "sense of gain" in the construction of ecological civilization.

　　Reporter:Please briefly introduce the calculation method and data source of the green development index?

　　Ning Ji Zhe:In order to do a good job in the annual evaluation, the National Bureau of Statistics has formulated and issued the Calculation Method of Green Development Index (Trial) as the methodological basis for calculating the green development index. There are three considerations in formulating the calculation method: first, to meet the needs of the assessment of ecological civilization construction objectives. According to the requirements of the assessment work on the score of the annual evaluation results, the calculation method should meet the needs of evaluating and ranking the green development status of 31 regions, and ensure the horizontal comparability of the green development index of each region in the same evaluation year. Secondly, it is evaluated strictly according to the green development index system. According to the "Measures", the annual evaluation is implemented in accordance with the "Green Development Indicator System". Therefore, the calculation method is carried out in strict accordance with the provisions of the "Green Development Indicator System" in terms of data collection, review and confirmation, conversion of green development statistical indicators, treatment of data missing indicators, standardization and index calculation. Third, ensure that the evaluation of green development is scientific, objective and fair. In the process of developing the calculation method, the opinions of relevant departments, regions and experts were widely solicited, and finally the classic, traditional, recognized and widely used efficacy coefficient method was determined as the standardized method of green development index to ensure the scientificity, objectivity and operability of the evaluation method. All regions are evaluated according to a unified method, and the index values of all regions in the same year can be compared to ensure the fairness of the evaluation method.

　　According to the "Measures", the target evaluation and assessment of ecological civilization construction adopts the data, relevant statistics and monitoring data identified by special assessment organized by relevant departments. The "Green Development Index System" stipulates that the data required for the green development index comes from the annual statistics of various regions and departments, and each department is responsible for providing the data on time and being responsible for the data quality. In order to standardize the collection and submission of basic data, the National Bureau of Statistics has formulated the "Statistical Report System for Green Development (Trial)", which collects basic data from 13 departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and stipulates the calculation method of indicators, statistical caliber, reporting scope and reporting time. All relevant departments submit data through official letters, and identify regional indicators without data in some areas to ensure the accuracy of annual evaluation data. The whole process of evaluation, from data collection, review and confirmation, calculation procedure to evaluation results, can be verified, traced and explained.

　　Reporter:Please briefly introduce the main contents and methods of the public satisfaction survey on ecological environment.

　　Ning Ji Zhe:In order to scientifically organize and carry out the public ecological environment satisfaction survey, the National Bureau of Statistics has formulated the Public Ecological Environment Satisfaction Survey Scheme. The survey of public satisfaction with ecological environment aims to understand the public’s satisfaction with all aspects of the ecological environment. The contents of the survey reflect all aspects of human settlements’ health, focusing on areas that are strongly reflected by the public and closely related to life, including the public’s satisfaction with the overall situation of the ecological environment in the region, the judgment on the improvement of the ecological environment, and the satisfaction with the local natural environment, municipal environmental sanitation, pollution and treatment.

　　The survey adopts a stratified and two-stage random sampling method, sampling 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) as a whole, fully considering the population size and urban-rural structure of residents in each region, and the sample is representative. The survey adopts computer-aided telephone survey, which is carried out by the statistical bureaus of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). Implement the system of off-site investigation, that is, each investigation unit is only responsible for the investigation of other provinces, not the investigation of this province, and there is no interaction between any two provinces to ensure the independence of the investigation. The whole visit process of each province is recorded, and the visit data is recorded in real time, and the whole investigation process can be traced back. Control the survey quality through spot checks and proportional audit of survey recordings. The sampling technical report issued by the School of Statistics of Renmin University of China pointed out that the variance and absolute error of public satisfaction with the ecological environment in all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) are lower than the requirements of the sampling design scheme, and the sampling scheme design is scientific, the estimation accuracy is high, the survey quality is well controlled, and the survey results are true and credible.

　　Reporter:Why is there a big difference between the green development index and the public satisfaction ranking in some areas? How to understand the relationship between them?

　　Ning Ji Zhe:The green development index is an objective evaluation result, which evaluates the overall progress of ecological civilization construction in each region in the previous year according to the statistical data provided by various departments; Public satisfaction is a subjective survey index, which reflects the public’s satisfaction with the ecological environment through a sample survey organized by the National Bureau of Statistics. The two reflect different emphases. The green development index focuses on comprehensively reflecting the overall progress of ecological civilization construction from the aspects of resources, environment, ecology and economy. The degree of public satisfaction focuses on investigating the degree of public satisfaction with the quality of ecological environment. The green development index includes 55 indicators in 6 aspects, involving all aspects of ecological civilization construction, while the public’s subjective feelings about the relevant indicators reflecting the local air, water, living environment and other environmental quality conditions are relatively deeper, and the annual evaluation results also show that the ranking of "public satisfaction" and "environmental quality index" has a significant correlation.

　　Reporter:Why is the environmental governance index high and the environmental quality index low in some areas?

　　Ning Ji Zhe:The "Environmental Control Index" focuses on the treatment of major pollutants, hazardous wastes, domestic garbage and sewage, and the investment in pollution control, mainly the work carried out by local governments in pollution prevention and environmental control. The "environmental quality index" mainly reflects the environmental quality of the atmosphere, water, soil and ocean, which is not only related to the progress of local environmental governance, but also related to local climate, natural conditions, industrial structure and other factors. At the same time, the deterioration of environmental quality is not caused overnight, and the improvement of environmental quality also needs a long-term process of governance and reversal. We must work together from various angles such as adjusting economic structure, increasing investment in environmental governance, and strictly controlling environmental pollution to continuously promote and gradually improve environmental quality.

　　Reporter:How to treat the annual evaluation results?

　　Ning Ji Zhe:According to the requirements of the "Measures", the evaluation and assessment of ecological civilization construction objectives adopts a combination of evaluation and assessment, with annual evaluation and five-year assessment. Five-year assessment focuses on constraints, and annual evaluation focuses on guidance. By measuring the overall progress of ecological civilization construction in various regions in the past year, the annual evaluation guides all regions to accelerate the promotion of green development and implement the work related to ecological civilization construction, and also lays a good foundation for the five-year assessment. The five-year assessment mainly examines the completion of key objectives and tasks of ecological civilization construction in various regions, strengthens the main responsibility of provincial party committees and governments in ecological civilization construction, and urges all regions to consciously promote ecological civilization construction.

　　The annual evaluation results can guide all regions to carry out the work related to ecological civilization construction in a targeted manner. The green development index is a comprehensive evaluation index, which can be used to compare and analyze the achievements and existing problems in various key areas of ecological civilization construction in various regions. Consolidate and maintain areas with advantages, thoroughly summarize, analyze and study areas that need to be improved and improved, put forward targeted solutions and implement them, so as to fill the shortcomings of green development and make joint efforts from resources, environment, ecology, growth quality and lifestyle to achieve comprehensive and coordinated development.

　　Ecological civilization construction is a long-term and arduous systematic project, and annual evaluation is also a routine work in the future, which should be viewed from the perspective of development. According to the requirements of the Measures, the annual evaluation adopts the same standards to objectively measure the progress and effectiveness of ecological civilization construction in various regions. We should focus on the progress reflected in the annual evaluation and the shortcomings revealed, make greater efforts to promote the construction of ecological civilization and green development, constantly improve our work in view of existing problems, and make concerted progress in all fields of ecological civilization construction in this region through continuous efforts to achieve green development.

　　In 2017, the annual evaluation of ecological civilization construction will be carried out for the first time. In accordance with the requirements of the Measures, combined with the future annual work, we will further improve the green development index system with relevant departments, study and improve the annual evaluation method of ecological civilization construction, vigorously strengthen the basic work of green development statistics, and earnestly strengthen the basic capacity building of personnel, equipment, scientific research and information platform in the field of ecological civilization construction, further improve the quality of data, and better meet the needs of ecological civilization construction target evaluation and assessment.