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The “2004 Beijing International Environment Forum”, organized by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and co-organized by China Everbright International Limited, was held on 14 September 2004 at the Beijing New Century Hotel. Mr. Wang Guangying, Ex-Chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Honorable Chairman of China Everbright Group, and Mr. Wang Mingquan, Chairman of China Everbright Group were invited to attend the forum. Mr. Li Binghua, Deputy Chairman of Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, and Mr. Zang Qiutao, General Manager of China Everbright Group, representing the Beijing Municipal Government and China Everbright Group, delivered speeches respectively.
International attendees included government officials, experts and academics from the US, Italy, Australia, Germany and Japan, who have been engaged in state environmental protection or are specialized in environmental protection research. Local representatives included environmental specialists from the renowned Peking University and Tsinghua University, government officials responsible for urban environmental management from Beijing and Shanghai, as well as enterprise representatives for environmental business investment management and environmental technological research. Over 100 participants attended the forum, for strengthening international cooperation in environmental protection and in preparation for the “Green Olympics”.
The forum’s main theme is to improve Beijing’s urban environment, for hosting the “Green Olympics” and to promote a sustainable urban development. International and local experts discussed the issue of environmental protection and sustainable development in urban cities. The forum has had a positive impact on the protection and improvement of the living and ecological environment in Beijing, promoting a comprehensive and sustainable socio-economic development as well as organizing the “Green Olympics”.
Currently, environmental protection has become a global issue that aroused the interest of international and local politicians as well as environmental specialists. As the Capital of the PRC, Beijing is the political and culture hub and simultaneously, a fast growing city. Environmental protection in Beijing has always been the major concern of the global community, especially upon China obtaining the rights to host the 29th Olympic Games in 2008.
In the opening speech, Mr. Li Binghua stated, “Since the opening of the market, China’s socio-economic development has been growing tremendously, urban construction continued to develop. Meanwhile, we also emphasized the importance of environmental protection and suggested the concept of a “green, technological and cultural Olympics”. “Green Olympics” refers to the implementation of advanced technology and management model to solve Beijing’s environmental problems. By capturing the immense potential brought forth by organizing Olympic Games and capitalizing on international experience in environmental protection for leading countries and cities, we endeavor to coordinate environmental protection with economic and urban development.”
Rapid economic development and urbanization in China led to a unique problem, the existence of an enormous amount of different types of pollutants. In view of this, the Beijing Municipal Government implemented a series of pollution preventives, focusing on the serious atmospheric pollution and formulated ten stages of measures in controlling the atmospheric pollution in Beijing. As compared with 1998, the concentration of sulfur dioxide and respirable suspended particulate in urban area in 2003 decreased significantly by 49% and 25% respectively, while the thickness of nitrogen dioxide remained stable. The figures indicated the effectiveness of atmospheric pollution preventives in Beijing where the air quality impressively improved. According to the “Beijing Olympic Games Action Plan”, the current situation of a vast amount of coal usage, numerous old motor-driven cars, strong industrial pollutant emission and weak ecological environment in urban areas, will undergo fundamental improvement by 2008. By then, sewage treatment rate will increase from 56% to over 90% while the scale of reprocessed water usage will reach approximately 50% of sewage emission. Beijing’s vegetation coverage will exceed 50% as the ecological barrier function continues to strengthen.
During the forum, Mr. Olav Myrholt, the environmentalist of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), delivered a speech on the topic “Environmental operation of the host country during Olympic Games” and highlighted environmental protection as the third pillar of the Olympic Spirit. He requested hosting countries of Olympic Games to extract utmost efforts in minimizing the adverse impacts on the environment due to Olympic activities. Beijing’s guarantee of the “Green Olympics” is an active response to the IOC. He is highly delighted with Beijing’s implementation of a series of measures to promote a “green” Olympics. With further environmental improvement in Beijing and the enhancement in air quality, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, established the environmental management system, adhering to international practices. By the stringent implementation of environmental protection during the construction of the Olympic Game facilities, the “Beijing Olympic Games Action Plan” and other educational promotional activities, received an overwhelming response from non-official organizations and the public. Mr. Olav Myrholt believed that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will definitely become the momentum and the paragon of urban environmental development, providing a unique experience in the organization of the Olympic Games. Environmental officials from Sydney and officials of the Turin Olympic Organizing Committee, introduced the environmental protection measures, adopted in the Sydney Olympic and the Turin Winter Olympics.
Mr. Curriculum Vitae, Director General of Ministry for the Environment and Territory stated in his speech that Italy and Beijing commenced a series of collaboration projects related to the “Green Olympics”, so as to assist Beijing to execute a number of atmospheric pollution management projects, for instance, to establish automobile workshops that attain Euro III emission standard. Among these projects, Italy provided Beijing with relevant technology and over 20 million Euro in subsidization. Currently, Italian representatives are discussing details for further cooperation, with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau and will continue to support Beijing’s environmental improvement and the construction of facilities, for the “Green Olympics”, through technological and capital support.
United States Environmental Protection Agency organized a delegation, including government officials and technological experts, to attend the forum. Technological experts introduced the state-of-the-art atmospheric self-estimation and evaluation technologies and methods. Mr. Dennis Leaf, official of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, indicated that the US and Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau are actively participating in discussions, collaborating details.
Professor Mario Molina and his wife of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Noble Prize winners from 1995, paid close attention to the forum. Despite their absence, they submitted the thesis “Improving Air Quality in Urban Cities: Case Study of Mexico”, which is extremely useful for Beijing’s urban environmental management.
Tang Xiaoyan of the Peking University and Professor Hao Jiming of the Tsinghua University combined their research achievements and jointly made their speech on the characteristics of atmospheric pollution and the control of automobile pollution in Beijing. Chairman of Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau also attended the forum and introduced the environmental protection plan for Shanghai’s World Expo.
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