BEIJING: Erik Solheim, former executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme, said he is impressed with China’s phenomenal achievements over the past decade in fighting environmental pollution and climate change, and in its march toward sustainable development.
This much is evident to his Twitter followers. Solheim’s latest tweets include one about China ranking first globally in planted forests and forest coverage growth, contributing a quarter of the world’s new forests in the past decade; one about China producing 60 percent of global solar energy last year and 80 percent of solar panels; and another highlighting the fact that 80 percent of the world’s new offshore wind capacity was installed in China last year.
He has also tweeted about Huawei’s new electric car factory in Chongqing, which will produce 700,000 vehicles a year, and about the fact that Shenzhen has become the first city in the world to have an entire fleet of fully electric public transportation vehicles — 16,000 buses and 20,000 taxis.
He believes that it’s time for the rest of the world to catch up.
For Solheim, who is also the former Norwegian Minister of the Environment and Minister of International Development, China’s achievements on the climate and environmental fronts all started with its fight against pollution.
“People wanted to see beautiful skies over their cities,” he told China Daily. “The incredibly fast reduction in air pollution in Chinese cities over the last decade shows how fast China can act. This has now spilled over into renewable energy, nature protection, green cities, electric mobility, tree planting and a lot more. Today, China is the world leader in all green technologies.”
The latest figures from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment prove Solheim’s observations that the country is rapidly switching to a more sustainable path.
Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu told a news conference on Sept 15 that the country’s toughest measures and greatest progress on the ecological and environmental front have occurred in the last decade.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
