On July 13, CBCGDF Chairman Hu Deping was invited to attend the 2019 (10th) China Steel Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Forum and delivered a speech. At present, China's steel industry has entered a critical period of the three phases of the reduction phase, the restructuring phase, and the green phase. Steel companies are not only welcoming important opportunities for high-quality transformation and development, but also facing increasingly great challenge of stringent environmental constraints and low-carbon development. In this regard, Chairman Hu Deping said that steel is a product exchanged between man and nature. When humans and nature exchange, human beings should adopt an attitude of equal exchange of friendliness, repair, circulation, regeneration and balance; human beings should plan ahead and take precautions.

The following is a compilation of the speech of Chairman Hu Deping and to be shared:

I am very honored to speak on behalf of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) at the forum. I don't have the expertise in this area, I can only tell my personal knowledge about my limited knowledge.

I. Steel and Chinese history

Greek theology divides human history into three stages, the Golden Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.

2400 years ago, China's philosophers and hundreds of people also have such a large division of human history, the Yanhuang Shennong, the Sui Dynasty, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period.

In the article "Teng Wengong", Mencius recorded the question and answer between him and Chen Xiang, a student of Gao Shiyimin Xu Xing, which is very interesting.

Mencius’s great wisdom about human labor is the views he expressed on exchange: “Use grain for farming tools and cooking utensils without damaging the interests of pottery workers and blacksmiths; pottery workers and blacksmiths use their cooking utensils and farm tools for food, and it will not harm the farmer’s interests!” People should exchange labor!

Mencius's brilliant exposition first shows that iron appliances have become daily production and daily necessities during the Warring States period. The steel industry production, which represents the development of productive forces, has promoted China’s progress from serfdom to landlord economy. The changes in the economic base have made Mencius aware of the inevitability of commodity exchange. The exchange also deepened the class contradictions, "Those who do mental labor rule and those who do manual labor are ruled", which was also what Mencius said at the time.

II. steel is a product exchanged between man and nature.

After the human society has produced labor surplus, the exchange between people is an improvement. People and nature also exchange. The raw materials of steel are out of the earth, that is, out of nature, but steel is not produced by nature, but by human beings through labor, wisdom and exchange of nature. Nature has to pay, it should get the compensation obtained by the exchange, it should be repaired, it should not become bruised and devastated. If we excavate tens of billions of tons of iron ore, coal mines and billions of tons of oil every year from nature, this means that nature is increasingly exhausted and dying. This is the academic view of the Club of Rome. It is optimistic that humans have begun to replace non-renewable energy with renewable energy. For the steel industry, there are not many ways to exchange with nature. People are second to none and give full play to the role of human infinite intelligence. This is to save energy and reduce emissions when it is producing steel, to remove its waste gas, waste residue and wastewater, and to reinforce it, which is the opposite of the Club of Rome.

Where is human beings as a species in nature? He is in the animal, spine, breastfeeding, primate, human, and subspecies positions. He is both ordinary and special. It is said that people, like all kinds of biological species, live together in a natural world and need a common living environment. To say that it is special is to say that people have extremely high wisdom, but at the same time, more importantly, human beings must be correct in their attitudes towards nature and cannot be plundered. In the exchange of humans and nature, human beings should adopt an attitude of equal exchange of friendliness, repair, circulation, regeneration and balance. If it is good, we will start now.

III. the relationship between steel and the capital

After the People’s Republic of China settled in Beijing, Beijing quickly became a production city from a consumer city. The two most visible industries are the steel industry and the textile industry. In 1980, after the reform and opening up, the Central Secretariat discussed the future development of the capital Beijing. One of the important issues is the relationship between the capital and economic construction. Comrade Yaobang expressed the following views in the Central Secretariat, which was published in the book "Selected Works of Hu Yaobang".

First, he said bluntly: "Beijing has become one of the most polluted cities in the world." "Now solve urban pollution first, otherwise what is highly civilized socialism?"

The second point is to solve the pollution problem. How is the capital built? Comrade Yaobang said: "Developing production, can't oppose, if no production development, what kind of Communist Party is it, what kind of Communist Party do we call?" "The coking plant and the chemical plant are the sources of pollution. This has a problem of industrial development." Beijing as the capital Emphasis should be placed on the development of the tourism industry, the food industry, and the sophisticated industrial and electronics industries. It is necessary to build highways, satellite cities, country parks, and propose to control the population of Beijing's household registration to around 10 million by the year 2000.

The third point is, "To build Beijing into the first-class city in China with the cleanest, most sanitary and most beautiful environment in the world." To this end, Comrade Yaobang proposed to use electricity for cooking and heating. "Electricity can reduce pollution, burning coal also invests in purifying air", "Purify the environment and do it in a comprehensive manner."

Fourth, Beijing, as the political center of the country, rather than as an economic center, what does it need to support the system construction? The Central Secretariat said: "We must build Beijing into a first-class city with the most developed science, culture and technology and the highest level of education."

One of the most profound changes caused by the goals and requirements of the capital development at that time was that in 2008, Shougang Group Co., Ltd. moved out of Beijing. China's steel industry has played a leading role in national energy conservation and emission reduction and environmental governance, and it has also paid a lot of sacrifice and cost. The 10th Steel Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Forum held today is an academic activity that continuously provides consultation, suggestions, and scientific research on data and parameters for the healthy development of the steel industry. Its valuable point is to plan ahead and prevent it from happening.

I wish the forum a success!

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9278.html

By / Maggie