China supports global environmental efforts and has played an
active role in international environmental affairs. Since 1994 when
the United Nations Framework Convention on Global Climate Change
went into effect, China has adhered to its principles in
international talks on climate change, adopting measures and
defending the legitimate rights of China and other developing
countries. In August 2002 China signed the Kyoto Protocol on
climate change.
China ratified the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants (POPs) in June 2004. Aware of its importance, the
government organized a lead team to draw up national plans and the
State Environmental Protection Administration established a lead
team and office for implementing the Stockholm protocols. China
will take necessary legal, administrative and technical measures to
reduce, control and dispose of persistent organic pollutants; and
will handle them in a safe, effective and hazard-free way.?
As a member state of the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), China has
maintained a close cooperative relationship with the organization,
an international fund-management partnership founded in 1992 that
has become the world's largest investor in the field of
international environmental protection. China is one of the few
developing world donor countries, having played an active role in
fund-raising. At the same time, the GEF has provided financial and
technological assistance in helping China protect its environment
and fulfill international treaties. China has undertaken dozens of
projects with GEF help, receiving several hundred million US
dollars in donations and becoming GEF's biggest beneficiary.
In the 1990s, the World Bank and China's State Environmental
Protection Administration set out a vision for the sustainable
development of China's environment in "China's Environmental
Strategy Paper" and "Clear Water, Blue Skies: China's Environment
in the 21st Century." In the past two decades, the World Bank has
granted loans to 24 environmental protection projects in China, and
assisted in obtaining donations from the GEF and Montreal Protocol
for Chinese environmental projects.?
Non-governmental environmental protection organizations from
various countries in the world, such as the World Wide Fund for
Nature and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, have
successfully cooperated with Chinese authorities and
non-governmental organizations in various fields.?
The "China Council for Cooperation on Environment and Development"
consists of some 40 experts and acts as a senior consultancy to
government. Since its establishment more than a decade ago, it has
made many constructive proposals to the Chinese government and is
respected abroad for its international environmental
cooperation.?
In 2004 China intensified activity in the field of international
environmental cooperation; the State Environmental Protection
Administration concluded 12 international environmental protocols
and multi-lateral environmental negotiations; held the fifth
China-Japan-Korea Ministerial Meeting on the Environment; started
the China-EU Ministerial Dialogue on Environmental Policies; paid
mutual environmental visits to Japan, South Korea, Canada, France,
Italy, Norway, Russia and Sweden; and signed the Memorandum of
Understanding on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of
Environmental Protection with the US Environmental Protection
Agency. A breakthrough has been made in the Sino-US bilateral
environmental cooperation. China also took part in WTO negotiations
on trade and environmental issues.?
