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.
