Environmental headway set to take global lead

Tourists feed black-headed gulls returning for winter at Dianchi Lake in Kunming, Yunnan province, on Thursday. [Photo/Xinhua]

Nation's green solutions reap rewards, offer key to modern harmony with nature

China has come up with a series of climate and ecological solutions that are instructive to the world as it strives to promote the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, with unprecedented green achievements made so far, a senior environment official said.

Zhai Qing, vice-minister of ecology and environment, said that under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, the country has made great contributions to safeguarding multilateralism in global environmental governance and it is determined to do more toward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

China's environmental protection endeavors have seen sweeping, historic and transformative changes, thanks to greater efforts from the central authorities to promote an ecological civilization, Zhai said at a news conference on Friday, which was held on the sidelines of the ongoing 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

He highlighted the significant decrease of the density of PM2.5 particulate matter as one example of the changes, saying major cities across the country saw their average density of PM2.5 particulate matter reach 30 micrograms per cubic meter last year, compared with 46 mcg per cubic meter in 2015.

"China has been the nation with the fastest progress in air quality improvement," he said.

About 18 percent of the country's land territory has been transformed into various types of protected areas, as China strives to improve a nature reserve system composed mainly of national parks, he said. Following a series of major biodiversity conservation projects, the populations of over 300 types of rare and endangered wild animals and plants have recovered.

"In the past 10 years, China has on average managed to support an annual economic growth of 6.6 percent, with a yearly increase of 3 percent in energy consumption," he said, indicating an accelerated low-carbon transition in the country.

When asked by a Brazilian reporter if China has any approaches to share with others in maintaining harmony between humanity and nature when planning its development, the vice-minister provided several facts and figures.

China has bolstered efforts to accelerate the development and application of low-carbon technologies and foster energy conservation and environmental protection industries, Zhai said. In 2021, the revenue of the country's environmental protection industry reached almost 2.2 trillion yuan ($303.6 billion), up by 11.8 percent from the previous year.

The official also underscored the roles of innovative policy instruments in boosting the green transition.

Since 2018, Chinese authorities have exempted more than 10 billion yuan in taxes for companies with emission levels below national standards, he said. The country also launched a national carbon trading program last year to tap the potential of market mechanisms in motivating emissions reduction.

China has contributed to global environmental governance not only with its wisdom. Adhering to multilateralism, it has proactively joined hands with other nations and will step up efforts for more multilateral and bilateral environmental and climate cooperation, Zhai said.

There has been significant progress, for example, in making the Belt and Road Initiative greener, he said. The BRI International Green Development Coalition, which China initiated in 2019 to enhance policy dialogue, joint research and capacity building, has now had more than 150 partners from over 40 countries.

Reaching 43 climate agreements with 38 developing nations under the South-South cooperation mechanism, Zhai said China has aided these nations with meteorological satellites, photovoltaic power generation systems and new energy vehicles to help improve their capabilities in tackling climate change.