Bangkok--Nov 1--UNISBKK
Bangkok/Nairobi, October 31, 2000 - As China embarks on its Great Western Development plan, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued words of both encouragement and caution.
In China to attend the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development meeting UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said China was poised to be an environmental superpower.
"The country's capacity to either degrade the global environment or inspire humanity about the potential of sustainable development is staggering, " said
Mr. Toepfer today.
The Great Western Development is a major trans-century plan of the Chinese Communist Party. It continues the vision of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping of common prosperity: the modernisation process, that focussed initially on coastal regions, now aims to bring economic development to China's vast western provinces.
In comments to the Council about the development plan Mr. Toepfer said that environmental costs needed to be fully accounted for. "Environmental degradation associated with economic development must be the responsibility of the developers," he said.
Mr. Toepfer urged the Government to carefully manage the vast dry lands and water scarce areas in provinces such as Qinghai, Xinjiang and Shanxi, to prevent further desertification of soils, loss of water quality and sand storms.
Mr. Toepfer said the development plan had implications well beyond China's borders as rivers such as the Hong He, Ili, Bramaptra and Pearl were shared with neighbouring countries. He urged the government to practice integrated catchment management, which could help to prevent flooding problems exacerbated by soil erosion in the upper Yangtze River, and to cope with heavy irrigation demands on the Yellow River.
Mr. Toepfer said initiatives to encourage cleaner production - such as the Government's recent ban on obsolete facilities, technologies and products in the Western regions - were extremely important. "When you consider a country as vast and populous as China, which is striving to improve standards of living, it is essential that wealth is created through very clean and efficient use of resources."
Mr. Toepfer said China had one of the most comprehensive environmental policies in the world but greater public awareness was needed to ensure it was followed and enforced at local levels. He welcomed recent initiatives to strengthen the environmental education curricula in Chinese schools.
Mr. Toepfer said having access to reliable environmental information was also an important component of the plan and offered UNEP's assistance in the area.
Last week UNEP was invited to become the Secretariat for a network in East Asia to monitor and address the threat of acid rain and deposition caused by sulfur emissions, including from China's coal-fired industries.
Mr. Toepfer said Western nations had a role in assisting China in its development by providing financing and technology that ensured clean and efficient industrial methods.
The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development was established in 1992 to strengthen cooperation and exchange between China and the international community and is comprised of about 50 high-ranking Chinese officials and international environmental experts. Its meeting from October 31 to November 2 focuses on recommendations regarding the Great Western Development plan.
Mr. Toepfer will also make a short visit to North Korea later this week as a guest of the Government, the first Executive Director of UNEP to do so.
He said there were many opportunities for the international community to help North Korea achieve sustainable development.
The country is short of food, with the agricultural sector weakened by five successive years of drought and damage from tropical storms.
The demilitarized zone on its southern border is one of the Korean peninsula's most important refuges for migratory birds and other wildlife.
"Environmental challenges transcend political ideologies," Mr Toepfer said.
"Now is the time to pool our knowledge, resources and technologies and put them at the service of the natural environment and humanity."
For further information contact:
Tim Higham, Regional Information Officer, UNEP/ROAP, Bangkok, Thailand, tel: 662-288-2127, email: [email protected]. Or Tore J. Brevik, Spokesman/Director of Communications and Public Information, UNEP, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi; tel.: (254 2) 623292; fax: 623692; email: [email protected] End.
-AN-