By Jiang Xingguang
The head of China’s top court met with a group led by Eric Solheim, the UN’s environment director, on Sept 12 in Beijing, signing a memorandum of understanding.
Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) of China, welcomed Eric Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), stressing that China is intensely focused on ecological civilization and sustainable development.
He said the Beautiful China campaign is one method of building a moderately well-off society in an all-round way.
Taking action, including passing and enforcing legislation and encouraging judicial and public involvement, has achieved considerable progress, according to Zhou.
The newly-modified environmental protection law is much stricter in terms of anti-pollution measures and policies, he added.
People’s courts all around the country have enhanced work on trials involving the environment and natural resources and play an important role in promoting ecological security and green development, Zhou noted.
Zhou also spoke highly of the work and achievements made by the UNEP in promoting environmental protection.
He said the SPC highly values international exchanges in environmental judicature and is willing to establish a mechanism for regular visits with the UNEP.
China expects to share legal data concerning the environment, establish judicial case exchange platforms, and conduct more pragmatic cooperation in talent nurturing and judge training with other countries, said Zhou.
Solheim echoed Zhou, speaking highly of China’s achievements in environmental protection and pollution control.
He said the UNEP is willing to conduct more extensive and in-depth exchanges with the SPC to share case information concerning the environment, set up relevant databases, and enhance personnel exchanges and training, thus contributing to global ecological civilization construction and sustainable development.
After the meeting, Zhou and Solheim signed a memorandum of understanding.
