Exploration of General Secretary Xi Jinping's New Strategy of Energy Security

Energy is an important basis for national economic and social development and an important area that General Secretary Xi Jinping has always been concerned about. After the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in the face of new changes in the pattern of energy supply and demand and new trends in international energy development, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward a new strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation" for energy security from the overall level of safeguarding national energy security, which is an important part of Xi Jinping's socialist thought with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Great ideas originate from great practice. In retrospect, the formation of the new strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation" in energy security is closely related to Comrade Xi Jinping's exploration and Reflection on promoting energy development during his work in Zhejiang Province. When Comrade Xi Jinping first came to Zhejiang in 2002, the energy problem in Zhejiang was prominent. The province's electricity supply can only meet about two-thirds of the demand. The electricity gap is huge. Coal supply is often not guaranteed. Natural gas has just started from scratch. In order to solve the problem of energy supply security in the whole province, Comrade Xi Jinping has carried out many investigations at the grass-roots level and enterprises, seven of which have been conducted in-depth research and guidance work of Zhejiang Energy Group Company (hereinafter referred to as "Zhejiang Energy Group"). In the course of the investigation, Comrade Xi Jinping thoroughly understood the current situation, existing problems and development trend of energy, and put forward specific requirements for energy development in the light of the actual economic and social development in Zhejiang Province. During his work in Zhejiang Province, Comrade Xi Jinping put energy issues into the province's economic and social development system and planned in the framework of the "Eighth-Eighth Strategy". He put forward many important ideas and opened a new chapter in Zhejiang's energy development. By reviewing Comrade Xi Jinping's series of important discussions on promoting the transformation, transformation and development of energy in Zhejiang during his work in Zhejiang, we can find that it is the important practice in this period that has laid a solid foundation for the proposal of a new strategy of energy security of "four revolutions and one cooperation".

Saving resources and protecting environment are the basic national policies of our country, and energy saving is the "first energy". When working in Zhejiang, Comrade Xi Jinping attached great importance to resource conservation. On February 19, 2003, when investigating the construction project of Jiaxing Power Plant of Zhejiang Neng Group, Comrade Xi Jinping put forward the idea of solving the serious power shortage problem: "Organically combine solving the power shortage problem with adjusting and optimizing the industrial structure, technical structure and product structure, and eliminate backward production capacity", "Grasp the power-saving technology and equipment". Promote the application, improve the efficiency of energy use, do a good job in energy saving articles, and strive to create a resource-saving society. These ideas pointed out that energy-saving measures should be strengthened to enhance energy efficiency and improve the quality and efficiency of development through optimization and upgrading of industry, technology and product structure. On December 19, 2005, Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out at the Economic Work Conference of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee that "we should stick to the simultaneous development of resource security and conservation and utilization, and put conservation first", "we should strive to save resources, eliminate waste of resources, reduce consumption of resources and strive for development in saving". On December 14, 2006, Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out at the economic working meeting of the provincial Party committee that we should improve the supervision and management and accountability mechanism, strengthen political responsibility as the key link to achieve energy saving and emission reduction, and strictly implement the responsibility system of energy saving and emission reduction targets. On January 10, 2007, he published the article "Correct Understanding of Good" and "Fast" in the column "Zhijiang Xinyu" of Zhejiang Daily. He pointed out that "Good" as a requirement for the quality and efficiency of economic development, mainly runs through the binding indicators represented by energy conservation, consumption reduction and emission reduction. Through continuous exploration and practice at the regional level in Zhejiang Province, Comrade Xi Jinping's ideas on adjusting industrial structure, promoting energy conservation and consumption reduction, and controlling unreasonable energy consumption are more systematic and mature, which laid a foundation for the germination and formation of the revolutionary concept of energy consumption. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that he should adhere to the basic national policy of saving resources, comprehensively promote energy conservation, emission reduction and low-carbon development, and move towards a new era of ecological civilization. On June 13, 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the sixth meeting of the Central Leading Group of Finance and Economics. He proposed to promote the revolution of energy consumption and curb unreasonable energy consumption. He called for resolute control of total energy consumption, effective implementation of the priority policy of energy conservation, and the penetration of energy conservation throughout the whole process and all fields of economic and social development. We should adjust the industrial structure, attach great importance to energy saving in urbanization, establish a thrifty consumption concept, and accelerate the formation of an energy-saving society. In recent years, Zhejiang Province has adhered to the basic state policy of saving resources and protecting the environment, and firmly controlled the total amount of energy consumption. In 2018, the energy consumption per unit GDP of the whole province decreased by about 45% on the basis of 2002, and the energy efficiency level was 0.4 tons of standard coal/10,000 yuan (2015 price), ranking fourth in the country. 

The traditional power industry is an important producer of energy. How to achieve green development and sustainable development has always been a concern of Comrade Xi Jinping. On June 18, 2004, when he was investigating the headquarters of Zhengneng Group, he put forward that "Clean energy is very important for thermal power plants to achieve cleaner production. If local nuclear power can go up, it can be explored." He initially put forward the idea of developing nuclear power as a useful supplement to thermal power plants, in order to solve the dilemma of electric power development and environmental protection. Question. On July 26, 2004, when investigating Jiaxing Power Plant construction project, Comrade Xi Jinping stressed that "in the long run, we should also consider the adjustment of power structure and vigorously develop clean energy sources."