On November 2, “Beautiful China 2035”, Open Forum for the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (“CCICED”) Annual General Meeting 2018, was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. The forum was co-organized by the Research Institute of China Green Development, Tianjin University, and GIZ.

The attendees exchanged ideas on two topics: goals and targets for environmental quality; needs for institutional and policy innovation. Based on discussions about the goals and targets for environmental quality and building a Beautiful China in different stages, they made policy recommendations on attaining the goal of building a Beautiful China.

Ms. Maria Krautzberger, Member of the CCICED and President of the German Environment Agency, and Mr. HU Baolin, Special Advisor of the CCICED and former Vice Director of the Office of the State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, presided over the forum. Ms. Krautzberger, Member of the CCICED and President of the German Environment Agency and Mr. Hideki Minamikawa, Member of the CCICED and the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center delivered keynote speeches respectively. Professor SUN Youhai, Dean of Law School, Tianjin University, made introductory remarks.

The following attendees participated in the discussions and put forward constructive ideas and suggestions: Mr. ZHOU Wei, Member of the CCICED and Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Transport; Ms. Jessica Kao, former Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor for Pacific Southwest of the United States Environmental Protection Agency; Mr. WANG Yi, Member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Vice President of the Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Mr. LI Junfeng, Research Fellow, Special Advisor of the CCICED and former Director of the China National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation; Mr. Seung-Joon Yoon, Member of the CCICED, former President of the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute, and Professor of Seoul National University, Korea; Mr. Jan Bakkes, Senior Project Leader of Global and European Outlooks, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency; Mr. YU Hai, Research Fellow of the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Ecology and Environment; and Mr. LI Jifeng, State Information Center. They pointed out that the development of a road map is of practical significance for achieving a fundamental improvement in the environment. They also said that it is essential to properly respond to opportunities and challenges and identify the uncertainties in the process of attaining the goal of building a Beautiful China.

According to Ms. Maria Krautzberger,  improving China’s environmental policy and learning from the experience of developed countries in pollution prevention are absolutely necessary for China to improve its environmental quality. Mr. HU Baolin,  said that global governance has witnessed certain interesting progress in environmental quality objectives. The Chinese government is also stepping up efforts to build an ecological civilization and make new achievements in this regard. Under the guidance of President XI Jinping’s thoughts of ecological civilization, improving environmental quality has become the starting point and the end result of environmental protection efforts and great achievements have been made in this regard. In terms of the goals and targets, Professor SUN Youhai pointed out that under the new normal in economic development, the environmental goals for global sustainable development are highly consistent with the measures to improve environmental quality, providing new, powerful impetus to China’s economic transformation and upgrading and sustainable development.

The participating experts agreed that it is of great importance to identify the implications of China’s goal of environmental quality improvement by 2035, conduct obstacle assessments on the realization of the goal, and propose the path to achieve the goal. The comments and suggestions put forward by the attendees will be of great help to China’s environmental efforts.

Around 60 people, including Chinese and international members, special advisors and observers, attended “Beautiful China 2035”, the Open Forum for CCICED Annual General Meeting 2018.