Historic changes in China attest to its progress on ecology

BEIJING -- China has witnessed historic changes on ecological conservation over the past decade, attesting to the success of the country's approach to achieving a balance between ecology and the economy.

A national conference on ecological and environmental protection was held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday, recognizing historic, transformative and comprehensive changes in ecological conservation and significant strides made in building a Beautiful China since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.

Less pollution, higher energy-efficiency and greater biodiversity are telling evidence that China has come along leaps and bounds on the ecological front.

"China has created miracles in both ecological conservation and green development in the new era, drawing worldwide attention," said Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu.

BLUER SKY, GREENER LAND, CLEARER WATERS

Thanks to China's persistent efforts to combat air pollution, the number of days with good air quality accounted for 87.5 percent of the total in 2021, up 6.3 percentage points from 2015, official data shows.

The PM2.5 density, a key indicator of air pollution, dropped 3.3 percent year on year to 29 micrograms per cubic meter in 2022, having decreased continuously for nearly a decade.

While forest resources have continued to decrease globally, China's forest coverage rate has reached 24.02 percent, with increases in both forest area and stock volume since 2012.

Water quality has also shown remarkable improvement, with 84.9 percent of surface water sections achieving the excellent quality grade, approaching the levels seen in developed countries.

The total amount of freshwater resources available in China's lakes and reservoirs has increased significantly since 2012, and the transparency of most lakes has steadily improved, with greater biodiversity in major lakes, according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in December last year.

CLEANER ENERGY

Having led the world in hydropower, wind power, solar power and biomass power capacity for years, China is seeing continued rapid expansion in its renewable energy output.

By the end of May, the installed capacity of wind power had risen 12.7 percent year on year to approximately 380 million kilowatts, while that of solar power stood at about 450 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 38.4 percent, the latest official data shows.

In green transport, the country has phased out millions of obsolete and heavy-emissions vehicles over the past decade, and evolved into the world's biggest new energy vehicle market.

During the past decade, China's energy intensity has been reduced by 26.4 percent. The country supported an average annual economic growth of 6.2 percent, with a 3-percent average annual increase of energy consumption.

China has steadily optimized the energy structure, with the proportion of coal consumption in primary energy consumption dropping from 68.5 percent in 2012 to 56 percent in 2021.

The industrial structure has also been gradually upgraded, with efforts to strictly control the blind expansion of energy-intensive and high-emission projects, while eliminating outdated production capacity.

A cleaner energy structure has helped drive down China's energy intensity (the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP) by 26.4 percent in the past decade, making it one of the countries with the fastest reduction in energy intensity.

IMPROVED BIODIVERSITY

Valuing harmony between humanity and nature, China has carried out major projects to protect biodiversity and rescue endangered species, with remarkable achievements.

By September 2022, the country had designated 35 priority areas for biodiversity protection, and returned 112 rare and endangered species of wild animals and plants to the wild.

China has also been deeply involved in global biodiversity governance, with its implementation of biodiversity conservation targets outperforming the global average.

The world's largest national park system is being built in the country. The first five national parks have already been established. In some of these parks, new species have been discovered, while ecological corridors have been built for vulnerable wild animals such as giant pandas.

As one of the countries that boast the richest biodiversity, China has placed 90 percent of its terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of key state-protected wild flora and fauna species under effective protection measures, while the wild populations of over 300 rare and endangered flora and fauna species have been restored and increased.