Creating New Phase of Environmental Protection Work in New Century: Editorial

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 10, 2002

Creating New Phase of Environmental Protection Work in New Century: Editorial

China will face a tough task in environmental protection in the coming years as the country embraces urban development and a growing population, Premier Zhu Rongji warned at a recent national teleconference on the implementation of the government's environmental protection plan for the 10th five-year plan period (2001-2005). He stressed that China must place more attention to environmental protection during the pursuit of fast and sustainable economic growth.

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Shortly after the sounding of the bell of the New Year, the Fifth National Environmental Protection Work Conference was held in Beijing, the first of its kind held by the State Council in the new century. The topic for discussion was implementation of the environmental protection targets and tasks set in the "Outline of the 10th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and arrangements for the environmental protection work in the "10th Five-year Plan" period. The conference is bound to generate profound influence on the comprehensive promotion of China's environmental protection undertaking in the new century.

During "the Ninth Five-year Plan" period (1996-2000), thanks to the high attention of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, China's environmental protection undertaking achieved tremendous headway: the tendency of the country's deteriorating industrial pollution was brought under preliminary control, the environment quality in some cities and regions was somewhat improved, the protection and construction of the ecological environment were strengthened, thus making positive contributions to expediting the sustained, rapid and healthy development of the national economy and social progress, and laying a solid foundation for environmental protection work in the new century.

However, we must take note of the fact that the environmental situation nationwide remains grim: the aggregate volume of pollutants discharged is still quite large, far higher than the environment's self-purifying capability, industrial pollution control is far from ending, the proportion of sanitary pollution is on the increase, agricultural source pollution has become increasingly prominent, the tendency of the deteriorating ecological environment has not been put under effective check. During the "10th Five-year Plan" period, China's industrialization and urbanization will continue to develop even faster, and economic globalization and China's entry into the WTO will bring new environmental problems. This being the case, we must have a sober understanding of the importance, protracted nature and arduousness of environmental protection in the new century.

The environmental protection targets set in the Outline of the "10th Five-year Plan" are as follows: Urban and rural environment quality, particularly that in large and medium-sized cities and key areas, by 2005 will be improved, the volume of major pollutants emitted will be reduced by 10 percent compared to 2000, in the "dual-control areas", the volume of sulfur dioxide discharged will be 20 percent less; the rate of forest coverage will be raised to 18.2 percent, the rate of reforestation in areas of newly completed cities will be raised to 35 percent. The ecology deteriorating tendency will be brought under preliminary control. There goes the saying "A thousand-li (one li=0.5 km) journey begins with the first step". Attainment of the environmental protection objective listed in the "10th Five-year Plan" is of great significance to China's sustainable development in the new century, for this we must adopt effective measures to fulfill various tasks without fail.

Structural readjustment is the main line of the "10th Five-year Plan" for National Economic and Social Development. Environmental protection work must rely closely on the strategic readjustment of the economic structure. Efforts must be intensified to close down and suspend the production of small enterprises that use backward techniques, cause serious resources waste and pollution and fail to achieve the specified economic scale. In industrial pollution control, we should combine technical renovation and clean production, and integrate the raise of the quality of economic growth and the reduced the load of contamination, so as to realize increased production and decreased pollution. For urban environmental protection, major efforts should be exerted to come to proper grips with readjusting the energy structure, with the emphasis placed on solving the problems concerning water, air and garbage pollution. We should continue to boost the construction of model cities that distinguish themselves in environmental protection. In the prevention and control of agricultural pollution, we should combine readjustment of the agricultural structure with the control on agricultural contamination, vigorously develop ecological agriculture, build ecological demonstration areas and reduce surface and source pollution. We should properly tackle the problem concerning the management of nuclear safety and the radiation environment.

During the "10th Five-year Plan" period, results must be achieved in the environmental protection tasks for key valleys, regions, cities and water areas set down by the State Council. Ecological construction and environmental protection are the important guarantees for ensuring sustainable development in the large-scale development of the western region, breakthroughs should also be achieved during the said period. The work of returning reclaimed farmland to forest and natural forest protection must be done well, and related policies must be carried out as required. In compliance with the requirements of the Outline of National Ecological Environmental Protection, we must restore as quickly as possible the ecological environment in the Yangtze, Yellow and Pearl river sources and other regions. In the major infrastructure construction projects, such as pipelining natural gas from the west to the east, west-to-east power transmission and the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, we should put the ecological protection and restoration in the most important position, and strictly prohibit damage to the ecological environment.

Environmental protection is a basic national policy and an important function of the government, governments at all levels should earnestly strengthen government leadership over the work of environmental protection, pay attention to and strengthen construction of environmental protection contingents. Governments at all levels must put environmental protection high on the agenda. We should institute a system under which the chief leader of every work unit personally grasps and takes overall responsibility for the work of environmental protection, and see to it that responsibility, input and measures are put in place in real earnest. We should actively support the reform of marketizing and industrializing environmental improvement and constantly broaden investment and fund-raising channels for environmental protection. Environmental protection departments at all levels should strive to enhance the ability and level of unified laws and regulations, unified planning and unified supervision and management, and strengthen the basic work of environment-related science and technology, input, monitoring, information and publicity and education. We should unfold environment-caution education, encourage public participation and give play to the supervisory role of news media. We should conscientiously study the new situation and new tasks facing China's environmental protection after its entry into the WTO, make proper use of environment-related provisions and maintain national environmental safety.

Environmental protection concerns the great reinvigoration of the Chinese nation and the sustainable development of various undertakings. Successful work of environmental protection is good for people of the time and beneficial to coming generations. Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core and with Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thinking of the "three represents" as the guide, let's inspire enthusiasm and make explorations and progress and strive to build China into a modern socialist country enjoying prosperous economy, social stability and a beautiful environment!

By People's Daily Online

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