People fly kites at Zhonghu wetland park in Huaibei, Anhui province. (PHOTO: VCG)

By CHEN Chunyou

With a large population of more than 1.4 billion, China needs an immense volume of resources and a vast green environment. It is therefore inevitable that the country chooses a development path of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, said Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu, who made the remarks after the opening meeting of the first session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing.

Over the past decade, China has attached great importance to environmental protection. According to statistics from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), China's PM2.5 density, a key indicator of air pollution, fell by 57 percent, and the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP declined by 34.4 percent from 2012 to 2021.

China has established the national park system to better protect wildlife species and their habitats, and taken a comprehensive approach to the governance of mountains, waters, forests, and farmlands, in order to preserve ecological balance by strengthening the ability of ecosystems to circulate.

Economic development and environmental protection complement each other, and a good ecological environment will lead to high-quality development, said Huang, citing China's annual GDP growth of more than 6.5 percent on average over the past 10 years, while polluting emissions have been sharply reduced.

Some measures have been taken by MEE to promote enterprises' high-quality development. In 2022, MEE instructed small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their environmental management ability to reduce potential impact on the environment.

To date, black and malodorous water bodies in cities at and above the prefecture level have been generally cleaned up. People enjoy taking a trip along the country's rivers or lakes during their leisure time, which exemplifies the concept of the harmonious existence between humans and nature, said Huang.

In addition, Huang highlighted a funding mechanism that demands financial flows from developed countries to support biodiversity conservation in developing countries, especially the least developed countries, adopted at the second phase of COP15 in Montreal, Canada in 2022, when China assumed the COP15 presidency, aimed at reversing biodiversity loss.

From this year onwards, MEE will continue to advance the green transformation in industry, energy and transport sectors, reinforce nationwide efforts to prevent and control pollution in urban and rural areas, and implement a coordinated control of PM2.5 and ozone, said Huang.

Meanwhile, the supervision over ecological protection and restoration is to be strengthened, and the introduction of major biodiversity conservation projects is planned, so as to maintain and enhance the diversity, stability and sustainability of the ecosystem, added Huang.