Green rivers and mountains should be safeguarded, and continuous efforts in ecological civilization construction should be made to boost the country's green development, a member of the presidium of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China said on Tuesday.

Zhang Yan, a member of the Fujian provincial committee of the CPC and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, said that Fujian is the first national ecological civilization pilot zone established in China. This year, the ratio of days with good air quality in the province reached 99.2 percent, while the ratio of water categorized as good quality in its 12 main river basins grew to 97.3 percent.

Fujian creates around 4.3 percent of China's economic output and only takes 1.3 percent of the country's land and 2.9 percent of the country's total energy consumption, data from the province showed.

Zhang attributed the achievements from recent years to concentrated efforts made from the provincial government, party committees at all levels, as well as the department of ecology and environmental protection.

"As stated in the report of the 19th CPC Central Committee to the 20th CPC National Congress, development should be achieved on the basis of a balanced lifestyle and harmonious co-existence between humans and nature".

"We should adhere to the concept of ecology first, integrate carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals into the construction planning of the province, actively adjust the industrial structure, and build a green, circular and low-carbon development system," he said.

Major ecological civilization projects are also critical. Next, Fujian will step up efforts to implement major projects for ecosystem protection and restoration, he added.

According to Zhang, currently, the 39 achievements of the reform in the national ecological civilization pilot zone in Fujian are replicated and scaled up nationwide.