"Climate change will be a challenge to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, but it can also be an incredible opportunity for countries such as China to leapfrog old technologies and lead the world in embracing a new low carbon future," said Subinay Nandy, country director of United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) in China, as he welcomed an audience of over 600 Expo volunteers and students at the Shanghai International Convention Center Sunday.

Coinciding with Miss Helen Clark's visit to the Shanghai Expo, the event was jointly organized by UNDP China and Jiefang Daily Group to raise awareness and engage an interactive conversation about low carbon living, particularly with young people.

With the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline looming, Miss Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, said, "China has made impressive progress in economic and social development and has met many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while being well on the way to achieving others. UNDP is proud to work with China in its efforts to reach the MDGs as well as in the climate change area and on low carbon development. China's achievements have been remarkable, and many other countries can learn from China."

This idea was furthered expounded by the lead author of the China Human Development Report 2009/10, Professor Zou Ji, who delivered the facts and figures behind China's successes and ongoing challenges. "China will see the migration of nearly 400 million rural Chinese into urban areas over the next two decades," he said. Commissioned by UNDP in partnership with Renmin University of China, the Report states that this urban movement, larger than the population of the United States, could exert substantial pressure on greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, it presents China with the opportunity to build new low-carbon cities from scratch, while other countries will have to retroactively adapt existing cities at great expense.

During the event, UNDP launched a unique comic book focused on green lifestyles through OUR PART, an environmental awareness initiative by UNDP China and Zhou Xun, UNDP's national goodwill ambassador. Zhou Xun, who was instrumental in designing and promoting the book, was moved by the moment, saying, "I am honored and extremely proud to be a part of the 'Green Life Comic Book'. Climate change is a very serious issue, but I feel we have been able to promote it by making it understandable and enjoyable."

To conclude the program, Helen Clark, Zhou Xun and Subinay Nandy, alongside two primary students, helped design the book cover in front of the audience. This book is China’s first bilingual cartoon on the subject of low carbon. The books will soon be published and distributed throughout primary and middle schools around the country.

The audience was left with a famous quotation from Mr. Lao Tzu, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Ms. Catherine Yin Chang, the event hostess, concluded the event saying, "Let's take this step together-we all have to do OUR PART."

(UNDP.org.cn October 18, 2010)