China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Ministerial Meeting on Environmental Cooperation, which was themed on “the future legacy”, was held in Podgorica, the capital city of Montenegro between Sept. 19 and 20, 2018.

Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović presented and spoke at the opening ceremony. MEE Minister Li Ganjie headed a delegation to the event and delivered remarks.

The Chinese Government has highly valued the ecological and environmental protection, established the basic state policy of resource conservation and environmental protection, and taken sustainable development as a national strategy, said Li in his remarks. Moreover, China has vigorously developed ecological civilization, and established a scientific and efficient ecological and environmental governance system.

As a result, positive progress has been made in the control of air, water, and soil pollution, biodiversity conservation, and climate change response, and the ecological and environmental quality has been continuously improved. China has honored its commitments to bringing the forest coverage up to 17 percent and the carbon intensity down by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level.

To deepen the “16+1” environmental cooperation, Li put forward four proposals, a. strengthen the connectivity of ecological and environmental protection strategies and climate change strategies, and enhance the exchanges and policy dialogues on the global environmental and climate issues of strategic significance; b. both join the Belt and Road International Alliance for Green Development, and together promote green Belt and Road Initiative and implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals; c. advance the dialogues on policies, laws, and regulations, and the connectivity of technologies and standards, and promote the green initiatives in the areas of infrastructure, product and trade, and financial services; d. actively promote cooperation on environmental industries, support their development, and foster growth engines of a green economy.

The meeting announced a presidential statement which adopted the framework document on establishing the environmental cooperation mechanism between China and central and eastern European countries and initiated the “16+1” environmental cooperation mechanism.