[The Original Meaning of Low Carbon and Its Cultural Response] The Significance of Low Carbon Economy

Abstract: Developing low-carbon economy and building a low-carbon society have become the common understanding of mankind. To achieve low-carbon development, we need to make a fuss about changing ideological and cultural concepts. Cultivating low-carbon culture in the whole society and establishing a low-carbon attitude towards production and life are the fundamental ways to solve the problem of low-carbon development.

Keywords: low-carbon development process, low-carbon cultural construction

The World Climate Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark in June 5438+February 2009 was a turning point in the low-carbon era of human history. It subverts not only the high-carbon economy, but also the mode of production, lifestyle and way of thinking formed since industrial civilization. Its powerful guiding role is leading the progress of human society and the evolution of human civilization with an irreversible trend. We believe that to achieve low-carbon development, we need to cultivate low-carbon culture in the whole society, establish a low-carbon production and life attitude, and lay a solid foundation for low-carbon development.

First, the meaning and course of "low carbon"

(A) the meaning of low carbon

The so-called low carbon originally refers to lower (lower) emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide). It is a new concept put forward by the international community in recent years to cope with the catastrophic change of global climate caused by the massive consumption of fossil energy and the massive emission of carbon dioxide. It is an idea that human beings advocate changing economic development mode, lifestyle or consumption habits in response to global climate deterioration, thus reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. "Its core is to form clear, stable and long-term guidance and encouragement on the basis of market mechanism, through the formulation and innovation of institutional framework and policy measures, to promote the development and application of energy-efficient technologies, energy-saving technologies, renewable energy technologies and greenhouse gas emission reduction technologies, and to promote the transformation of the whole social economy to a mode of high energy efficiency, low energy consumption and low carbon emission."

(B) the course of low carbon

Since the 20th century, faced with the increasing climate change and its negative effects in politics, economy and culture, countries all over the world have put aside the differences of national boundaries, races and languages and started to actively seek ways to solve climate problems.

1972 On June 5th, the first conference on human environment held in Stockholm, Sweden issued the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment. The meeting and declaration declared the responsibilities and obligations that participating countries and international organizations need to fulfill, and brought guarantees for protecting people's lives and improving environmental problems.

From 65438 to 0987, the United Nations Joint Commission on Environment and Development made a report entitled Our Common Future. After a thorough and systematic discussion of the same problems faced by mankind, the report puts forward a far-reaching concept of "sustainable development" and emphasizes three viewpoints: first, environmental crisis, energy crisis and development crisis are inseparable; Second, the earth's resources and energy can not meet people's expanding development needs; Third, for the survival and development of future generations, contemporary people must change the current development model.

1In May 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Climate Change held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, gave birth to the world's first international convention to comprehensively control greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global warming-the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This is the basic framework for international cooperation in tackling climate change.

1997 the Kyoto protocol was formulated by the participating countries of the United nations convention on climate change at the third meeting held in Kyoto, Japan. "Kyoto Protocol" puts forward the goal of "controlling the greenhouse gas content in the atmosphere at an appropriate level to prevent severe climate change from causing harm to human beings".

The theme of World Environment Day in 2008 is "Changing traditional ideas and promoting low-carbon economy". I hope the international community can pay attention to it and take measures to incorporate the knowledge of low-carbon economy into decision-making. Although the World Climate Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark from June, 5438 to February, 2009 only reached a "limited understanding", the low-carbon concept gradually penetrated into the hearts of more people around the world outside the conference, and new concepts and policies such as carbon footprint, low-carbon economy, low-carbon technology, low-carbon development, low-carbon life, low-carbon society, low-carbon city and low-carbon world came into being.

Second, the road to low-carbon development: cultivating low-carbon culture

Developing a low-carbon economy and building a low-carbon society has become a global consensus. We believe that the future development of low-carbon economy needs the support of technological innovation, the guarantee of capital investment, the improvement of system construction and the cultivation of low-carbon culture.

(A) Low-carbon culture and its characteristics

1, the meaning of low-carbon culture

Low-carbon culture is divided into narrow sense and broad sense. Low-carbon culture in a narrow sense refers to the sum of spiritual factors such as values, ideas, knowledge, customs, beliefs, attitudes and norms about low carbon dioxide emissions. Low-carbon culture in a broad sense has the same concept as culture in a broad sense, including four levels: implements, systems, codes of conduct and concepts. Low-carbon appliances refer to technologies and mechanical equipment with low CO2 emission in material form, which are the material and technical basis for supporting low-carbon development of economy and society. Low-carbon system is a system, system and mechanism formed and established to ensure low CO2 emission, and it is a social organization form and guarantee for formulating and observing low-carbon behavior norms. Low-carbon code of conduct is the laws, regulations, policies, measures and ethics that regulate the behavior of carbon dioxide emission, and it is a mandatory and non-mandatory provision that binds enterprises, institutions and citizens to meet the requirements of low-carbon development. The concept of low carbon refers to ideological factors such as values, ideas, knowledge, customs, beliefs and attitudes about low carbon dioxide emissions. Low-carbon concept is at the core of low-carbon cultural system, which plays a fundamental guiding role in the formulation of low-carbon behavior norms and people's low-carbon behavior. Low-carbon system is established and formed under the guidance of low-carbon concept and the constraint of low-carbon code of conduct, which is the guarantee for the implementation of low-carbon concept. Low-carbon utensils are on the surface of generalized low-carbon cultural level, which are the materialized form and external expression of low-carbon ideas. They are created and applied under the guidance of low-carbon ideas and in accordance with the requirements of low-carbon behavior norms.

2. Characteristics of low-carbon culture

Ecology of value orientation

Low-carbon culture emphasizes ecological value. It calls for a change from "man is the yardstick of all things" to "ecology is the yardstick of all things", abandoning the values of one-sided emphasis on material, economic and humanistic values while ignoring natural, environmental and ecological values, and taking the road of ecological civilization development. In this sense, the so-called low-carbon development is a development with ecology as the value scale, that is, a development model that does not destroy ecology or has little damage to ecology, can be compensated, repaired and constructed.

(2) Environmental protection with the orientation of survival attitude

Low carbon means low emissions and low pollution. It advocates a natural, healthy, safe and green life attitude and concept, and represents a cultural concept of "living poetically on the earth" in exchange for human desire satisfaction, economic growth and social development without damaging health and environment. It is a new attitude towards human existence established after deep reflection on the paradigm of economic growth and social development since industrialization in the middle of18th century.

(3) frugality of behavior orientation

Low-carbon culture advocates frugality, simplicity and luxury in production and lifestyle, and advocates moderate production and consumption. It requires a change from a high-energy and high-consumption production lifestyle to a low-energy and low-consumption production lifestyle, from consumerism and hedonism to a simple, moderate and sustainable consumption concept, from conformity, comparison and ostentation to a realistic consumption psychology, from blindness, impulsiveness and loyalty to a scientific and rational consumption behavior, and from irrationality and uncivilized to a rational and civilized consumption mode.

(4) Sustainability of development mode orientation

The goal of low-carbon development is the sustainability of human economic and social development, which is essentially a basic way of sustainable development. It requires a comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of human, society, nature and environment, from the abnormal development centered on "things" that ignores the overall progress of human and society, to the one-sided development centered on "people" that ignores the balance between human and nature, and then to the unsustainable development at the expense of resource cost, environmental carrying capacity and the development rights of future generations.

(B) Cultural response measures for low-carbon development

1. Lead the low-carbon development of economy and society with the correct low-carbon concept culture.

Low-carbon development needs external means and measures such as technological innovation, financial guarantee, system construction, legal norms and policy guidance. Where the innovation lies, where the funds are invested, how the system is designed and how the legal policies are standardized are all determined by the values that are hidden and invisible, hidden and inherent in people's consciousness. Therefore, in order to realize the low-carbon development of society, the most crucial and fundamental thing is to change people's values, realize the transformation from the traditional "man is the measure of everything" to "ecology is the measure of everything", let people truly establish low-carbon values in deep consciousness, that is, the values of ecological civilization, and guide people to develop economic and social behaviors.

2. Guide low-carbon actions by popularizing low-carbon theoretical knowledge.

Low-carbon economy is a form of new economy, and its development needs the support and guidance of low-carbon theory. Just like Allen? What is new in the new economy? In the final analysis, the territory of the new economy is not in science and technology, nor in chips or global telecommunications networks, but in people's ideological boundaries. Low-carbon development needs low-carbon theory as a guide to action. This requires profound reflection on traditional development theories, including economic development theory, social development theory and daily life philosophy, so as to form and establish low-carbon development theory and its knowledge system, spread it to the whole society, arm the public's minds, and make people generally master and learn to use low-carbon theoretical knowledge and skills. Only in this way can people actively and reasonably implement low-carbon development actions.

3. Standardize low-carbon behavior with multi-level low-carbon institutional culture.

Low-carbon institutional culture includes low-carbon laws, low-carbon policies and low-carbon morality, which is an important guarantee for realizing low-carbon economic and social development. The realization of low-carbon development is reflected in people's production, work and life behaviors, and people's daily production, life and work behaviors, driven by the desire to maximize profits and interests, often exceed or deviate from the expected goals of low-carbon development. This requires the use of laws, policies and moral education to regulate and standardize people's behavior, and punish and condemn behaviors that violate or deviate from the requirements of low-carbon development goals.

4. Practice low-carbon behavior with a low-carbon lifestyle.

The impact of low-carbon economy on the world is not limited to the economic field, it will also have an impact on people's lifestyles. Most importantly, human beings will change their way of life and move closer to a "low-carbon life". Low-carbon lifestyle is a moderate, healthy, civilized and green lifestyle with the premise of saving energy, reducing carbon emissions and reducing environmental pollution and the basic requirements of frugality, simplicity and low-carbon leisure, including low-carbon consumption, low-carbon home, low-carbon travel, low-carbon office and low-carbon leisure. Low-carbon life requires everyone to realize that he is a direct participant in the low-carbon economy that is closely related to everyone, and take reducing carbon emissions as the first priority in life, develop good habits of energy saving, green and environmental protection in daily life, get rid of the bad habits of extravagance and waste, extravagance and waste, and pollute the environment, and establish a healthy and civilized attitude towards life.

In short, it has become a global consensus to develop a low-carbon economy and build a low-carbon society. In order to truly realize low-carbon development, it is necessary to treat the symptoms from the technical, economic and institutional levels, and to make a fuss about changing people's ideological and cultural concepts. The fundamental way to solve the problem of low-carbon development is to cultivate low-carbon culture in the whole society, so that the public can generally form low-carbon ideological and cultural concepts and establish a low-carbon production and life attitude.

Project: The phased achievement of the 20 10 annual project "Research on the Construction of Low-carbon Campus Culture in Higher Vocational Colleges" (20 10B278) in the 11th Five-Year Plan of Hubei Education Science.

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