On September 8, 2021, the 10th China-Asean Engineering Forum was held in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Academicians, experts and scholars in relevant fields from home and abroad had in-depth exchanges and discussions at the forum, contributing wisdom and strength to building a China-Asean community of shared future. Zhou Jinfeng, Vice President and Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development, was invited to attend the conference and delivered a special report.

Promoting ecological progress is fundamental to all our work

Today, I will present my report from four aspects: first, adhering to the idea of ecological civilization; second, the role of carbon in engineering construction; third, the "three axioms" and "four principles"; and last, the community with a shared future for humanity.

In the earth 4.6 billion years of history, we human primitive life happened 65 million years ago after the fifth mass extinctions. Still, today we're facing a change we haven't seen in a century, nor 60 million years, because biodiversity loss is happening faster today than in the last five, and it's not going to stop.

When China made a summary of the UN Millennium Goals in 2015, it failed to accomplish item 7B, slowing the loss of biodiversity. This is why humankind must move from primitive to industrial civilization and from industrial civilization to today's ecological civilization, which is the fundamental foundation of all our work.

When I was a child, I read about one of the ten most famous mysteries of the world, the Mystery of Easter Island, an island in the South Pacific. There are no people, no grass, no trees, no resources on this island. It's all sand. So, where did the statues come from? One of the most popular theories at the time was that aliens built stone statues on the island. Modern science and technology have made it clear to us that the island was once prosperous. But then humans began to have totems and beliefs, and different groups began to compete to build stone statues. To build the statues, the trees on the island were cut down, and finally, the land desertification led to the extinction of the island's humans. Today, we humans repeat the same mistake, leaving behind the statues and tons of steel, concrete, and plastic waste.

The crisis of biodiversity is the greatest crisis facing humanity

We now face three major crises, a public health security crisis, a climate crisis and a biodiversity crisis. But the fundamental issue is biodiversity. When I talked about bird protection in a lecture, economists questioned whether we were extreme animal conservationists. We're not conservationists, and we're not even environmentalists. We're just habitat watchers. 

In industrial civilization, fluoride produced by humans is widely used in daily life, and scientists have found that when it rises into the air, it destroys the ozone layer. The ozone layer is known to protect living things from ultraviolet radiation. At that time, a hole in the ozone layer was discovered in the Arctic. If this hole continued to spread, almost all life on earth would be at risk of extinction. 

When the Montreal Protocol was signed, many people opposed it because they thought it would cause unemployment, lost GDP, etc. But in fact, this concerted global action saved the day, and today we find that the ozone hole is closing. The co2 crisis we face today is similar to this problem, and I use this example to show you that we have succeeded before. Why do we commit to the dual carbon target today? It is for the survival and development of human beings.

The thought of ecological civilization should guide ecological engineering construction

The main source of greenhouse gases is fossil energy, which is the primary source. Today's global crisis is caused by human beings and can only be solved through the actions of each one of us. In this regard, HbS (Human-based Solution) is the slogan. Today, our dual carbon target puts forward many requirements on the supply side, including energy enterprises and power generation enterprises, but this is far from enough. We should also make efforts on the demand side, and the change of each individual is the only way to solve today's problems. 

At present, many of our ecological projects are contrary to the idea of ecological protection. In March last year, Yuanshi County in Hebei province hardened the riverside in the Huaihe River regulation project, which affected the nesting and living of sand swallows. Without the swallow, insect control is affected, which leads to the local river vegetables, fruits, grain and other pesticides exceed the standard, including soil and river pollution by pesticides. I advised them to stop. Two months later, we saw thousands of little swallows; the scene is spectacular and beautiful, called ecological civilization or green project. 

Now we have many problems with the project. We need to be guided by the idea of ecological civilization, overall development of construction. The goal of the dual carbon project is an important part of ecological engineering, and the goal of biodiversity is also an important part of ecological engineering. 

"Three Axioms" for Pollution Control and "Four Principles" for Ecological Restoration 

Pollution control and ecological restoration projects also have many problems. 

Pollution control should be governed by three axioms: non-proliferation, non-harm and full publicity. But our pollution control process is often a process of pollution diffusion because in the process of pollution control, there will be more pollution to the water and soil, so this process shifts the pollution.

Ecological restoration should follow four principles: conservation principle, natural principle, limited principle and macroscopic principle. Take Daihai in Inner Mongolia for example. The water quality of Daihai exceeds the standard of fluoride, and it is challenging to remove fluoride because the soil near Daihai itself contains fluorine. It is not artificially introduced, it is natural. So it is entirely wrong to use the yardstick of industrial civilization to measure the ecological costs of substandard economic systems. Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought contributes to Marxist philosophy, a new world outlook, and methodology. What is our understanding of the world today? 

Harmony between man and nature and this very precious nature 

At the elephant conference a few days ago, we made efforts to be carbon neutral. 

The conference organizers plan to create a "carbon sequestration forest," which is a great idea. Scientists conducted a survey on forests with elephants and without elephants in Africa and found that elephants have a very large carbon capture capacity. Why? Because elephants' feeding will open up space for plants to grow, thus accelerating the growth of plants and shrubs. Elephants use some of the carbon they eat for their use, and some of it goes back to the soil as waste to feed plants and encourage them to sequestrate more carbon. So if we do scientific research in this area, we will be in the construction of carbon sequestration forest will be a great success. 

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, and we have tens of billions of output in a year of moon cakes. We speak of carbon neutral, but the moon cake packaging waste generated by countless, including the electricity and water in production and transportation process, etc... Hence, we all need to change our mode of production and lifestyle. This is the requirement of ecological civilization and also our responsibility. 

Today is the forum with ASEAN. After signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the CBCGDF established a working group on RCEP-4C (4C: Civil Society, Culture, Communication, Cooperation), which invited domestic and foreign experts to hold seven meetings. At the meeting, we mainly discussed that while developing an economy, we must be guided by the thought of a new ecological civilization. 

Our foundation is the first-class society of China Association for Science and Technology, specializing in biodiversity conservation and green development. 

Biodiversity for many people is endangered species protection, but it is not. It includes genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity. It includes mountains, water, lakes, fields, forests, grass, sand and ice, including the habitats we depend on for survival. Thank you! 

The forum is co-hosted by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Science and Technology Association, China Center for International Science and Technology Exchange, Secretariat of China-Asean Expo and ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology. 

Original Chinese article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xhqmepjm9CKKT6Kx37lNTA

Translator/Syying

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