The Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment recently announced the first study on the calculation of Shandong's GDP: the province's land GEP in 2020 was 2482.469 billion yuan, and the green waters and green mountains on Qilu have since become "valued".

□ Chen Xiaowan

The Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment recently announced the first study on Shandong's GDP (GEP) calculation: the province's land GEP in 2020 was 2482.469 billion yuan, and the green waters and green mountains on Qilu have since become "valued".

Chinese-style modernization is a modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to establish a mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products, improve the ecological protection compensation system, and pointed out the direction and strategic path of building a harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

solves the problems of ecological products such as "difficulty in measuring, difficult to mortgage, difficult to trade, and difficult to cash out". The value evaluation and measurement of ecological products are the basis. Shandong announced the GEP accounting results this time, which not only laid the foundation for the realization of ecological products' value, but also provided a new tool for the implementation of the concept of ecological civilization at the practical level. It is a "big step" to promote the coordinated evaluation of GDP and GEP and explore the establishment of a dual assessment system for GEP and GDP.

GEP is the GDP of the ecosystem. At present, economic development has entered a stage of high-quality development, and the use of GDP alone can no longer fully reflect the quality of economic development. Last year, Shandong issued the "Implementation Opinions on Strengthening Ecological Protection Supervision", which clearly proposed to explore the construction of a GEP accounting evaluation system, which opened the road to exploration of GEP accounting and application. The GEP accounting results released by

this time have figured out the value of the province's ecosystem. They not only made a macro judgment—the province's land GEP increased by 19.72% in 2020 compared with 2015, showing a trend of simultaneous growth between GEP and GDP, and the coordination of economic development and ecological protection in the province has been continuously improved; they also made a micro-level "diagnosis"—compared with other regions in China that have carried out GEP accounting, although the GEP per unit area in the province is at a high level in 2020, the ecological products are mainly material products and cultural services, and the adjustment services of the ecosystem still need to be further explored and improved.

calculates the value of ecological products. Next, it needs to be turned into value to realize the conversion of value. At present, some paths have been explored to realize GEP value. For example, last year, Mengyin County released the first village-level GEP accounting report in Shandong, and this year it released the county-level GEP accounting report. Based on the three-level GEP accounting results of counties, townships and villages, Mengyin County has launched financial services such as "ecological loans" for ancient trees and famous trees, forest resources "carbon finance" and "GEP loans" for whole village ecological credit, issued the first carbon sink pledge loan in Shandong Province, signed the province's first private forest chief forest carbon sink value insurance, opened up the channel for ecological resources to turn capital, and the "green account book" was successfully cashed out. The new "four modernization collaboration" approach that Mengyin County is exploring is quantifiable, financialized, marketized and diversified, not only opens up a new situation for realizing the value of its own ecological products, but also provides other regions with replicable, promote and implementable experience.

From point to surface, in order to play the green guiding role of GEP in a wider range, it is necessary to further improve the mechanisms of ecological environment survey and monitoring, ecological product census, and ecological product dynamic monitoring, gradually establish a GEP accounting system and management platform, and improve the cross-departmental data co-construction and sharing mechanism. Gradually promote the application of ecological product value accounting results in government decision-making, assessment and evaluation, planning and project construction, so that GEP can play a role in ecological protection compensation, ecological environment damage compensation, ecological resource rights trading, operation and development financing, etc.

From the perspective of the whole province, the greatest significance of publishing GEP accounting data is not to determine the value of the ecosystem, but to provide a strong tool for the policy system that prioritizes ecological and green development. The originally invisible ecosystem value has now been transformed into visible numbers, which has also added support to the green transformation of enterprises in some regions and industries in reality.

green is the background color of high-quality development, and Shandong's announcement of GEP accounting results is just the beginning. With the continuous improvement of the application system for GEP accounting results, GEP, which is expected to be included in the relevant performance appraisal system, will become a weather vane for high-quality development.

In the future, the coordinated evaluation of GDP and GEP is the general trend. All localities should promote the effective transformation of GEP to GDP and achieve double growth.