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White Paper on Environmental Protection
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-05 10:27 X. International Cooperation in Environmental Protection
China stresses international cooperation in environmental protection, and is
active in conducting relevant activities with the United Nations (UN) and other
international organizations. Over the years, it has dispatched senior delegates
to all the meetings of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, and the
World Summit on Sustainable Development and its successive preparatory
activities. China and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have
conducted fruitful cooperation in the fields of desertification prevention and
control, biodiversity protection, ozone layer protection, clean production,
cyclical economy, environmental education and training, flood prevention and
control on the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, regional sea
action plan, and the global action plan for preventing land-sourced pollution
and protecting the oceans. China has also established, with the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and
other international organizations, effective modes of cooperation. China has
actively participated in the environmental protection and sustainable
development activities under the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC), and attended all the APEC environment ministerial meetings.
China's efforts for environmental protection have been acknowledged and praised
by the international community. The UNEP, the World Bank and the Global
Environment Facility granted the "UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize," "Green
Award" and "Global Environment Leadership Award" to the persons in charge of
China's environment affairs, and the UNEP also awarded the title "Champion of
the Earth" to the leader of the All-China Youth Federation. By the end of 2005,
the UNEP had conferred the "Global 500 Award" on 22 units and six persons in
China.
So far, China has acceded to more than 50 international
conventions on environmental protection, and has been active in performing the
obligations stipulated in these conventions, which include the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal
Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Rotterdam Convention on
the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and
Pesticides in International Trade, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena
Biosafety Protocol, and the United Nations Convention on Combating
Desertification.
The Chinese government has compiled the State Report of
the People's Republic of China on Sustainable Development and the China Action
Program for Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, and made clear the key
fields and action plans of sustainable development for the early 21st century.
It has approved the China State Plan on Gradually Eliminating Substances That
Deplete the Ozone Layer, drawn up more than 100 policies and measures in
relation to the protection of the ozone layer, built development and production
bases for products that can substitute ozone-layer-depleting substances, and
other environmentally-friendly products, and met the phasing-out target set in
the Montreal Protocol. According to a World Bank estimate, the amount of
ozone-layer-depleting substances that China has eliminated accounts for 50
percent of the total amount eliminated by all the developing countries. The
Chinese government hosted in Beijing the fifth meeting of the conference of the
signatory states to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer
and the 11th meeting of the conference of the signatory states to the Montreal
Protocol, which adopted the Beijing Declaration and Beijing Amendment,
respectively.
China has consolidated and promoted its cooperation with
neighboring countries and regions involved, and actively participated in the
construction of a regional cooperation mechanism. Together with Japan and the
Republic of Korea (ROK), it has established a mechanism for environment
ministers to meet to hold regular policy exchanges and discussions of
environmental issues of common concern. After the launching of the Greater
Mekong Subregion (GMS) Environmental Cooperation mechanism, the first GMS
environment ministers' meeting was successfully held in 2005, which spelled out
the biodiversity conservation corridor program for the subregion and other
cooperative projects. Environmental cooperation under the mechanisms of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China (10+1) and ASEAN and
China, Japan and the ROK (10+3) has started. At the proposal of the Chinese
government, the first Environment Ministers' Meeting (EMM) of the Asia-Europe
Meeting (ASEM) was convened in 2002, which released the Chairman's Statement of
ASEM EMM and reached agreement about the basis, potential and principle of
Asia-Europe environmental cooperation, and defined the key fields and priorities
for such cooperation. In recent years, the China-Europe mechanism of ministerial
dialogue on environmental policy and the meeting mechanism of China-Europe
environment liaison officers have been set up, and the first China-Arab
Cooperation Conference on the Environment was held earlier this
year.
China has been active in bilateral cooperation in environmental
protection. It has signed bilateral agreements or memorandums of understanding
on such cooperation with the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia and 38 other
countries, and signed bilateral agreements or memorandums of understanding on
nuclear security cooperation with 11 countries. It has made considerable
progress in its wide exchanges and cooperation with others regarding environment
policies and regulations, pollution prevention and control, biodiversity
protection, climate change, sustainable production and consumption, capacity
construction, model projects, environmental technology and environmental
industries. In addition, it has carried out several environmental cooperation
programs with the European Union, Japan, Germany, Canada and nine other
countries or international organizations with bilateral assistance gratis. China
is also active in environmental cooperation and exchanges with developing
countries. To support the follow-up action of the China-Africa Cooperation
Forum, China has sponsored the thematic activity of China's Environmental
Protection Oriented Towards Africa. In 2005, China and the UNEP jointly hosted
China-Africa Environment Cooperation Conference, and the Chinese government has
organized courses of Workshop on Water Pollution and Water Resources Management
for African Countries, helping African countries with environmental
training.
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