On October 25th, the 1st “Create Green Development of Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone Forum” was held in Yuecheng District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. The forum released the “Green Development Consensus of Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone”.
It is reported that the forum is hosted by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), organized by Shaoxing Yuecheng district government, and co-organized by Beijing Fengtai District Fountainhead Enthusiast Environmental Research Institute, Beijing Grassland Alliance Environmental Protection and Promotion Center, Guangzhou Zero Plastic Binding Environmental Protection Consulting Co., Ltd., Hubei Huanyuan Law Firm, Zero Waste Village, Shanghai Rendu Marine Public Welfare Development Center, Shaoxing Environmental Protection Volunteers Association, Shaoxing Chaolu Environmental Protection Public Welfare Service Center, Shenzhen Zero Waste Environmental Protection Public Welfare Development Center, etc.
The past five years have witnessed the most rapid development of environmental protection in China. No matter the top-level design of national environmental protection policy, or the implementation of environmental protection laws and regulations in various fields and public participation, there have been actual and profound changes. At present, the development of regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone has become a national strategy. As the regional center of a new round of reform and innovation and economic development, the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone is facing major opportunities and challenges in ecological environment protection and economic development.
Hu Baowei, Dean of the School of Life Sciences of Shaoxing University and the President of Shaoxing Environmental Protection Volunteer Association, introduced in the forum that Shaoxing has always attached great importance to ecological protection and environmental governance. In recent years, the city has promoted the work of environmental protection as a whole and deepened the prevention and control of industrial pollution. It has successfully implemented the system of paid use and trading of emission rights, carried out the appraisal and assessment of environmental damage, and promoted the "one license" reform of emission permits. In Shaoxing, it has implemented the strictest ecological environment protection system and carried out the reform of ecological compensation mechanism.
“Shaoxing has formed a large number of ‘Shaoxing samples’ in the country, from the goal of building the strictest environmental law enforcement city to a large number of national pilot environmental protection systems settled in Shaoxing.” He said that Shaoxing is striving to build a model of Jiangnan Water Town with “be able to see the beautiful mountains, clear water and always have feelings of precious homesickness”, and a model of modern water city with “clear water, green land, pure sky, harmonious nature, and friendly people”.
“Ecological environment has become an important factor restricting the development of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone. It is mainly manifested in the problems of high pressure of waste disposal and insufficient coordination among regions.” Du Huanzheng, a UNEP official, Professor at School of Environment and Sustainable Development, Tongji University and the member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Meeting of National Development of Circular Economy, made the speech during the forum: the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone should adopt the principle of “co-consultation, sharing and co-governance” by means of multi-agent participation, interest coordination, cooperation and co-consultation, the development of circular economy, and closely focus on the two themes of ecological environment protection and sustainable development. To jointly build a regional environmental protection system, formulate regional environmental protection and prevention system standards, and promote the regional integration of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone.
Yang Yong, President and chief scientist of Hengduan Mountain Research Institute, pointed out that the basic concept of the development of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone is the concept of green and low-carbon development. The great protection of the Yangtze River needs to establish a sense of the overall situation in the upper, middle and lower reaches, recognize the key points and coordinate the co-governance. “The Yangtze River Delta is the leading region of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, and it should also play a leading role in the protection of the Yangtze River.”
Gong Gu, the professor and doctoral supervisor of Guanghua Law School of Zhejiang University pointed out that the concept of ecological civilization construction is advanced, the affairs are complex and the subjects are numerous, involving many concepts collision, different interests balance and various risk choices, so it must have the support and guarantee of environmental law. As a leading area with a developed economy, perfect rule of law and good ecology, the Yangtze River Delta area has great potential in improving environmental rule of law. We should make scientific planning, promote together and set an example.
Yu Wei, executive deputy secretary-general and senior engineer of Zhejiang Environmental Protection Federation, pointed out that the government, the public, and enterprises are the three main bodies responsible for environmental protection. Among them, the public is the main body of environmental protection supervision, and environmental protection is reasonable and scientific only considering the public interest. At present, environmental protection is facing the problems of public practice, social organization development, government response, and system guarantee. The key to promoting environmental protection and public participation lies in strengthening and enhancing the willingness and ability of social participants.
“With the acceleration of ecological integration in the Yangtze River Delta area, government departments have taken action, and non-governmental environmental organizations hope to actively participate in environmental governance and jointly promote a new round of high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta area,” said Yang Xiaohong, special representative of the Secretary-General of CBCGDF. For the first time, this forum has gathered the most active and outstanding environmental protection organizations and experts and scholars in related fields in China. Under the new opportunities and challenges, social organizations and government functional departments, enterprises, etc. will take the lead in promoting effective collaborative action in the field of environment in the Yangtze River Delta and help the Yangtze River Protection program and the environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta area.
CBCGDF suggested that in the new round of Yangtze River Delta regional integration development, we should adhere to ecological priority and environmental priority, fully attach importance to mobilizing the enthusiasm of the public participation, open wider and deeper public information on ecology and environment, increase transparency, work together with social organizations, ordinary people and enterprises, discuss and govern together, and work together to protect and build a better ecological environment, so that let the Yangtze River Delta area set a good example in environmental governance for the whole country.
On the morning of the same day, the forum also released the “Green Development Consensus of Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone”. In the process of regional integration of the Yangtze River Delta area, the “Green Development Consensus of Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone” will fully combine the non-governmental environmental protection forces to jointly promote the practice and implementation of environmental protection issues such as air, water, soil, waste classification, hazardous chemicals management, and actively share experiences; efforts should be made to explore more flexible and effective coordination mechanisms with local government functional departments, enterprises and the public in the field of environmental governance; carry out more extensive and in-depth social cooperation across different fields, and improve the environmental rule of law; cultivate and enhance public environmental awareness, and strive to promote the Yangtze River Delta to break a path of high-quality and harmonious development of green ecology.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/10275.html
By / Xue Tongtong