It is the 2nd National Ecology Day today, Aug. 15th. I am connected to CGTN to talk about our opinions on China’s high-quality development in ocean-related economy. Here is what I said:
Q1:
Under the recently released guidelines to promote the green transition, how do you think China can better achieve sustainable and high-quality development in its marine economy?
Sustainable blue economy is a subset of green economy, therefore, many articles in these guidelines are relevant in the marine economy. In fact, it is more straightforward and practical if we focus one specific aspect like marine economies. here let me talk about two points:
The guidelines mention that technology development is crucial in the green transition. It should be mentioned that the highest potential of carbon capture and storage, lies in the ocean. The investment in these sectors, as well as exploring nature-based solution in defending natural disasters should all be considered part of the transition. These technologies related to ocean and nature will eventually benefit us substantially.
The guidelines also outline a policy system required for the transitions. WWF have started to prepare researches that can contribute. We developed a blue taxonomy, which listed the ocean-friendly industries according to China standard, so that administrations could issue favorable policies for these industries. We are now developing a sustainable fishery inventory which looks like a database of commercial projects. In the future, we hope investors can choose sustainable projects from it so that sustainable projects can be funded.
We believe these attempts in sustainable blue economy can contribute to a high-quality development under the guidelines.
Q2: How can China develop the building of a global ecological civilization and more importantly deepen its participation in worldwide environmental governance?
From the perspective of an international organization, I would say that playing active roles in international treaties is a pathway that China can explore in global environment governance.
We have witnessed China’s leadership in adopting Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework. China’s acceptance of WTO agreement of fishery subsidy should also be acknowledged. WWF have had several interactions with relevant departments in China on its participation in the Agreement of Port State Measures. China’s positive attitude on this agreement provided us with strong confidence in fighting the global illegal, unreported and unregulated fishery.
Currently, I would mention one specific opportunity, the new plastic treaty in negotiation. Plastic pollution is a global and transboundary issue that affects the world’s ecosystems. China possesses a complete industry chain from plastic production to waste management, which allows it to manage plastic pollution comprehensively from upstream to downstream. We hope that China could demonstrates its ambitions, and shares its experience with other countries, and thus driving the negotiation in a more ambitious and constructive direction.
I appreciate Jin Chengcheng, my colleague, on helping me shape up the expressions on plastic.
Here are the links:
https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:5067741858824233?from=old_pc_videoshow
https://x.com/China24Official/status/1824080255415734312
