{"id":6519,"date":"2006-03-13T08:51:46","date_gmt":"2006-03-13T15:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2006\/03\/13\/environment-the-hot-topic-at-npc-2006\/"},"modified":"2009-01-30T12:13:01","modified_gmt":"2009-01-30T19:13:01","slug":"environment-the-hot-topic-at-npc-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2006\/03\/environment-the-hot-topic-at-npc-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment the hot topic at NPC 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nZhou Shengxian, head of SEPA<\/a>, has been popping up all over the media landscape after making a statement to the 10th session of the National People’s Congress<\/a> about the need for more concentration on environmental issues.\n<\/p>\n \nThe latest from Reuters via Planet Ark (link<\/a>):\n<\/p>\n \n“Scientific approach to development” might seem like at empty slogan, but China’s environment chief thinks it’s the tool he needs to tackle the country’s pollution woes.<\/p>\n “It has equipped me with a very powerful weapon. If I use this weapon properly I will not end up resigning,” said Zhou, who heads the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).<\/p>\n More than two decades of 9.5 percent annual growth have come at the cost of pollution so severe it has become a cause of riots, health problems and made China home to 20 of the world’s 30 most smog-choked cities.<\/p>\n But in what has become a theme of the 10-day session of China’s annual rubber-stamp parliament, when nearly 3,000 delegates meet to discuss and improve Communist Party policies, Zhou said the growth at any cost approach was changing.<\/p>\n “Under some conditions, development is like combustion,” Zhou warned. “What’s burned away are resources, what’s leftover is pollution, and what’s produced in that process is GDP.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nThis follows AP coverage of Zhou’s recent remarks to the NPC via the Seattle Post Intelligencer (link<\/a>):\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Technorati Tags: China<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \nEnvironmental protection took on new urgency for Chinese leaders after a Nov. 13 chemical spill in a northeastern river forced a city to shut down its water supply, and sent pollutants flowing into Russia.<\/p>\n Zhou’s agency said in a report that its goals for this year include better prevention and control of pollution in major rivers, stricter environmental law enforcement and increased supervision of nuclear and radiation safety.<\/p>\n The agency also will develop an environmental law enforcement team, it said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nFinally, the Chinese Press appear to be jumping on Zhou’s bandwagon, with Xinhua running an article on farmers’ support for an “environment-friendly countryside<\/a>” and People’s Daily quoting an NPC delegate as calling for the writing of a “right to environmental information<\/a>” into the Chinese constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zhou Shengxian, head of SEPA, has been popping up all over the media landscape after making a statement to the 10th session of the National People’s Congress about the need for more concentration on environmental issues. The latest from Reuters via Planet Ark (link): “Scientific approach to development” might seem like at empty slogan, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[99,132,100,4202],"tags":[2772,302,1018],"class_list":["post-6519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cdt-highlights","category-environmental-crisis","category-politics","category-translation","tag-npc-2006","tag-pollution","tag-sustainable-development","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n