In a sign that China is devoting more efforts to the protection of the environment and natural resources, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's parliamentary advisory body, has set up a division devoted to the topic with 85 delegates. The newly elected National Committee of the CPPCC will hold its next session starting on March 4, concurrently with the National People's Congress (NPC). A total of 2,172 delegates from 34 sectors will attend the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.
As many as 85 new delegates from a diverse range of technical backgrounds will be representing the environment and natural resources sector – including power generation, water resources, land surveying and management, environmental management, biodiversity and forestry. Among them are 36 researchers from China’s renowned universities and institutes and 15 CEOs from the top state-owned energy and natural resource companies. The rest are high-level officials who either lead or have the power to directly influence carbon reduction and environmental policy, including those from the ecology and environment, natural resources, and water resources ministries, as well as the China Meteorological Administration. The delegates will be coming together to exchange ideas on the challenges ahead and consolidate proposals to the relevant ministries, which are obliged to offer responses. “This is a very important signal, as adding a new sector to the CPPCC hasn’t been seen for years. It shows Beijing’s attention to environmental protection,” said Ma Jun, Director of the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based non-profit environmental research firm.
Adding the green sector to its top advisory body is the latest move from Beijing as it ramps up efforts to meet carbon neutral goals and protect an environment fighting the effects of decades of breakneck industrialization. President Xi Jinping has made environmental protection one of five key policy areas in his quest to build an “ecological civilization”, as China strives to achieve its carbon emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. Efforts to transition into a low-carbon economy began in 2009 and have intensified in recent years. This has included bold steps to cut emissions in the power, industry and transport sectors, which together account for over 90% of China’s total carbon emissions, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
China has also promoted clean energy, such as wind and solar power, to reduce emissions from the steel, cement and chemicals industries, and offered strong backing to the electric vehicle sector. It has also built its own carbon trading system, offering financial incentives for companies to reduce emissions. But the country remains the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, after decades of heavy dependence on coal, which accounts for more than 60% of its total power consumption. The changes in the CPPCC line-up would bring more expert voices into policy discussions on the highly technical field of the environment, Ma noted, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
