China strives to enhance environmental protection: vice premier

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli (C) attends the annual general meeting of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 11, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

China will advance green development, strive to solve outstanding environmental problems and strengthen protection of the eco-system, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said Monday.

"China attaches great importance to the construction of ecological civilization," Zhang told an annual conference of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a non-profit international advisory body approved by the Chinese government.

"China is putting the building of ecological civilization into a five-sphere integrated plan, which is an important step toward the building of a beautiful China and has contributed China's wisdom to solving global environmental problems and the building of a beautiful world," Zhang said.

The five-sphere integrated plan focuses on coordinated economic, political, cultural, social and ecological advancement.

Zhang said the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China had made "a new important plan for the construction of China's ecological civilization in the new era."

Zhang said China would establish a green, low-carbon and recycling economic system.

"China will try to curb the pollution of the air, water and soil, and prohibit foreign garbage from entering the country," he said.

He said China would step up environmental management in key areas such as nature reserves and national parks, and carry out pilot projects on the restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes and grasslands.

"China will reform the regulatory system for the ecological environment, establish and improve a system for the development and protection of territorial space, so as to provide institutional guarantee for the promotion of a beautiful China," Zhang said.

He said China strove to "build a beautiful world for all on the basis of wide consultation with other countries, actively participate in the international cooperation on coping with climate change, and make good preparation for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity."

At the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, participants from over 150 countries drew up the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. They also signed the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The vice premier said he hoped that members and experts of the CCICED could "enhance exchanges and mutual understanding to contribute more wisdom and strength to building a community with a shared future for mankind as well as the sustainable development of the world."

The theme of this year's conference is "Ecological Civilization in Action: A Common Green Future for the New Era."