Zhou Shengxian, MEP Minister and Executive Vice Chairperson of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (hereinafter referred to as CCICED) delivered a special speech at the CCICED 2012 Annual General Meeting (AGM), saying that to make great efforts to advance ecological progress and build a beautiful country is the new responsibility of environmental protection workers in contemporary China. Our environmental protection workers should play a leading role in promoting ecological progress and building a beautiful China by acting as leaders, promoters and enforcers in the process.

　　Recently the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China drew extensive domestic and global attention. A prominent highlight during the congress was the emphasis on ecological progress as one of the five overall arrangements for pursuing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The congress emphasized the ecological awareness of the need to respect, conform to and protect nature. It also stressed the need for us to incorporate ecological progress into all aspects and the whole process of advancing economic, political, cultural, and social progress; strive to build a beautiful country; achieve lasting and sustainable development of the Chinese nation; and make contributions to the security of the global ecology, said Zhou.

　　Ecological progress reflects the overall achievements made by humankind in the process of protecting and building a healthy ecological system, conserving the physical environment, raising ecological awareness and improving institutions related to environmental protection; and should be considered a comprehensive program that is involved in all aspects and all stages of economic, political, cultural and social progress. Ecological progress builds harmony between man and nature, between people, and between people and society. Ecological progress can only be made on the premise that we respect the laws of nature; pursue the perfect balance between man and nature, the environment and the economy, and people and society; make sound use of natural resources in economic activities; establish industrial structures and ways of production and life that conserve resources and protect the environment; enhance sustainable development capacity; and build an environment-friendly society with higher efficiency in energy consumption, added Zhou.

　　The fresh notion of building a beautiful China emerged at the historic moment when China highly prioritized ecological progress. This notion preserves the sincere hopes of generations of Chinese Communists for a better future and bolsters the Chinese dream that harbors the goals of building a “youthful China,” “beloved China,” “new China,” “prosperous, strong, democratic and culturally advanced China,” “harmonious China,” and the “great Rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”; and it has given ecological progress bright prospects, said Zhou in his speech.

　　Beautiful China derives its essence from the beauty of our era, of our society, of our life, of our people and of our environment. Beautiful China is a country that pursues scientific development. In order to build a beautiful China, we should implement fully the basic state policy of resource conservation and environmental protection: we will steer development and modernization to the people-oriented track of comprehensive, balanced and sustainable scientific development. Beautiful China fosters a harmonious society. The building of a beautiful China injects new impetus to the building of a harmonious society and the satisfaction of the growing needs of our people for a better ecological environment and quality ecological products. Social harmony in the human world relies on harmony between man and nature. The equilibrium between the development of human society and of the natural ecological system, the harmonious interexchange between man and nature, and the mutualistic coexistence of man and nature will facilitate the building of a beautiful China, a harmonious society for all. Beautiful China is a China that promotes ecological progress. Building a beautiful China is the direction of ecological progress, which in turn is the only way to build such a country. We must establish a sound ecological civilization system, reliable ecological security is the obligatory bottom line, and an improved ecological environment is the ultimate objective of efforts to promote ecological progress. The main goals and general process of building a beautiful China coincide with those of promoting ecological progress. Beautiful China is a country that pursues sustainable development. Since the 1960s or 1970s when humankind began to be aware of the importance of the ecological environment, there have been four historical leaps in people’s knowledge of the ecological environment, respectively marked by the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, and United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012. All this has provided fresh ideas and models for the building of beautiful China, said Minister Zhou.

　　Building a beautiful China not only involves all social classes, all walks of life, various sectors and industries, but also has different objectives, content and requirements in different stages. On the one hand, we should do well in top-down design, and clearly define the direction, objectives and tasks. On the other hand, we should take effective measures and make substantial progress. We should develop China's geographical space, industrial structure, mode of production and way of life in the interest of conserving resources and protecting the environment, leave more space for nature to achieve self-renewal, keep more farmland for farmers, and leave to our future generations a beautiful homeland with green fields, clean water and a blue sky, said Minister Zhou.

　　The Chinese Government has always attached high importance to environmental protection, and especially recently, has given a far more prominent strategic position to doing so. Reducing the discharge of major pollutants has functioned as a constraint measurement for economic development. The Chinese government has formulated the strategic thinking of promoting ecological progress, striving for historical transformation in environmental protection, and proactively exploring the new path of environmental protection. The government has also worked hard to solve serious environmental problems that impact scientific development and people’s health. From recognition to practice, an important change in the field of ecological environmental protection has been achieved. All this can be demonstrated by the following facts, a) Concrete progress was made in reducing the emissions of major pollutants. b) Environmental protection played a better role in optimizing economic development; c) There were significant results in the comprehensive rectification of environmental problems affecting people’s lives. d) Further progress was made in preventing and controlling pollution in key river basins. e) Ecological and environmental protection in rural areas was greatly intensified, added Zhou.

　　Minister Zhou emphasized that environmental protection is the main front and fundamental measure of ecological progress. It is the main thread, main stage, and point of action for promoting beautiful China. The environmental protection workers shoulder the historic responsibilities of promoting green growth, resources recycling and low-carbon development, speeding up the pace to promote ecological progress, and creating sound work and living environment for the people. So, 1) We should actively explore the new path of environmental protection in China to protect the environment through economic development and develop the economy through environmental protection. We must quickly build a macro strategy system for environmental protection suited to Chinese conditions; a comprehensive and efficient system for pollution prevention; a sound evaluation system for environmental quality; an improved system for environmental protection laws, regulations, policies, and technology standards; a well-developed system for environmental management and supervision of law enforcement; and a social action system for the participation of all citizens. 2) We should make overall plans and take all factors into consideration, do a good job in top-down design, and strive to develop China's geographical space, industrial structure, mode of production and way of life in the interest of conserving resources and protecting the environment. We should ensure the speedy implementation of the functional zoning strategy and environmental functional zoning, draw red lines to protect key ecological functional zones and environmentally sensitive areas and ecologically fragile areas on land and in oceans, and ensure that the red lines are not crossed. We should require all regions to pursue development in strict accordance with this strategy. We should enhance the environmental impact assessment in accordance with law, expand the public participation, and introduce information sharing. 3) We should deepen the emission reduction measures, promote structural emission reductions, make more detailed plans for reducing emissions in projects, monitor emissions reduction and make every effort to meet our goal in reducing emissions of main pollutants. 4) We should address pressing environmental issues that encumber scientific development and do harm to people’s health. We should pay closer attention to industries that are energy intensive, have high emissions and deplete resources, strictly control overlapping projects of low technology content and ones in overcapacity industries. We should safeguard the wellbeing of Chinese people by concentrating our efforts on resolving environmental problems related to heavy metals, toxic chemicals, hazardous waste and levels of PM2.5 and persistent organic pollutants. Specifically, we should emphasize the integrated prevention and control of the pollution of fine particular matters (PM2.5), carry out multi-pollutant cooperative control, improve joint prevention and control mechanism, and enhance the management capability for joint actions to prevent and control air pollution in key regions. 5) We should promote the establishment of eco-demonstration zones. We should push forward the campaign of establishing eco-friendly provinces, cities and counties, model cities for environmental protection, beautiful villages, environment-friendly enterprises and green communities, and promote the concerted endeavor of the whole Chinese society to make ecological progress and build a beautiful nation. 6) We should accelerate the establishment of a mechanism in favor of ecological progress. We must establish a sound system that is coordinated, comprehensive, completely functional and highly efficient to protect the ecological environment. We should deepen reforms on natural resources pricing, and improve the overall policy system that governs natural resources, the environment and the economy. We should establish a mechanism that is capable of holding the ones who violate environmental laws and regulations in account and build a system of compensation for environmental damage. We should waste no time to forge a series of goals and standards for making ecological progress, and draw detailed plans to promote the process.