The 3^rd China-EU Environmental Policy Ministerial Dialogue attended by Mr. Zhou Shengxian, Minister of Environmental Protection and EU Environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas was held on Apr. 24. The two sides had an in-depth discussion on the areas of future environmental cooperation and related topics and reached consensus on issues of mutual concern. Zhou Shengxian stated that as a platform for regional environmental cooperation, China-EU Environmental Policy Ministerial Dialogue would play a positive role in strengthening bilateral environmental cooperation and promoting sustainable development of China and EU. He wished both sides would have further exchanges of ideas to enhance mutual understanding and develop more substantial cooperation on the principle of mutual benefit and sincere cooperation. Led by this important mechanism, environmental cooperation between China and EU would surely be elevated to a new high.

(Photo Source: Jia Jiheng from China Environment News)

Zhou Shengxian first introduced some concrete progress China has made in environmental protection and some existing problems. He said the environmental protection work had entered a brand new stage over the past three years which redefined the relationship between environment and economic development. First, the Chinese government pays much attention to environmental protection and has made overall arrangement on environmental protection in the new era. In 2006, the State Council convened the 6th National Congress of Environmental Protection and proposed to accelerate three transformations: the transformation from overstressing economic growth against environmental protection into paying equal attention to both economy and the environment; a transformation from environmental protection lagging behind economic development into synchronized advance of environmental protection and economic development; and a transformation from mainly relying on administrative instruments to protect environment into using legal, economic and technical means combined with mandatory administrative measures to address environmental problems. By doing so environmental protection work will enter a new stage where economic growth is optimized through environmental protection. In 2007 the 17th National Congress of CPC proposed to the whole society to observe conservation culture and basically form resource-saving and environment-friendly industrial structure, economic growth mode and consumption pattern. All this shows that environmental protection is backed by state will and is integrated into the mainstream of national economic and social development as a basic state policy. In 2008 the 1st session of the 11th National People's Congress approved the establishment of Ministry of Environmental Protection. The founding of this Ministry realized the dream of generations of environmentalists and once more reflected the high attention and determination of the Chinese government to strengthen environmental protection. Second, we have taken comprehensive measures to facilitate energy conservation and pollution reduction. The Chinese government explicitly set the binding targets in its Eleventh Five-Year Plan to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20%, water consumption per unit of value added of industry by 30% and total discharge of SO₂ and COD by 10%. In 2007 the State Council released General Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Pollutant Discharge Reduction, established statistics, monitoring and evaluation system for the scheme and assessment mechanism for target responsibility system. Policies on pricing, taxation and finance that help to conserve energy and reduce pollution were also put in place, and law enforcement and inspection were enhanced. Third, environmental economic policies targeting the whole process of reproduction were formulated to set up a complete pollution control system. Now the framework of China's environmental economic policies has taken shape which includes seven aspects like green trade and green insurance. It has been proven that these measures are correct and have achieved initial results. In 2007 the total discharge volume of SO₂ and COD dropped for the first time, marking a turning point of China's environmental protection.

Zhou Shengxian expressed China's position and views on climate change, biodiversity and other global environmental issues that EU is concerned about. They also talked about topics on bilateral cooperation including assessment of China-EU environmental cooperation and chemical management. He proposed to develop cooperation in such areas as adoption of market mechanism in environmental protection, synergy on climate change, China-EU cooperation in environmental governance and establishment of ecological services.

Stavros Dimas approved the efforts China has made in the past few years to protect the environment. He noted that the Chinese government had done extensive work that was positive and significant to improve the environment and to honor its promise of "Green Olympics". This was of great significance for China and the world at large. China and EU have a sound basis for environmental cooperation, which has been carried into a fresh stage of development through years of efforts. Our cooperation is more pragmatic. Both China and EU are faced with the challenge of environmental protection, implementation of the strategy of sustainable development and other major global environmental issues. Therefore, we share a lot of interest in this field. In accordance with the pressing problems China is to solve and international environmental hotspot issues that both of us are concerned with, EU will continue to support China and open up more space for cooperation in synergy of climate change and capacity building of China-EU environmental governance.