Ding Zhongli, WEC chairman, Vice-Chairman of NPC Standing Committee, Chairman of China Democratic League

At present, the problems of soil, water and air pollution in China are still serious; the air quality is still far from our ultimate targeted expectation; the situation of the water quality is still very uneven from place to place. In short, there is still a large gap between the needs of the people and the current situation of environment. Since there is still an arduous way to go for the improvement of environmental pollution, we need to put emphasis on the following four aspects:

First, it is important to reinforce ecological environmental protection from the legal perspective, protecting the ecological environment with the strictest laws and regulations. On the one hand, there is a need to enact the relevant law and people have to follow it. Nowadays, many laws on environmental protection in China have been enacted or revised. In the future, in accordance with the specific ecological environmental protection issues, the related laws and implementation rules will be improved and optimized. On the other hand, it is necessary to enforce law strictly and law-breakers must be prosecuted, in order to further increase the penalties for companies’ illegal behaviors of the law and hold them accountable.

Second, it is indispensable to give full play to the role of technological innovation. We can observe from historical experience that by the comprehensive understanding of the causes and mechanisms of environmental pollution and the breakthroughs in technologies and methods of treating environmental protection problems, the ability of improving environmental quality can be greatly enhanced, driving industrial upgrade and economic transformation. Proceeding from the fact that China's natural environment, industrial structure, and technological level varying from place to place, and various types of environmental problems, we need to increase the number of environmental protection applications, and guide scientific and technological forces to conduct forward-looking research on environmental protection.

Third, it matters to vigorously cultivate environmental protection industries. The international environmental protection industry is developing rapidly, showing a trend of simplification of technology and systematization of solutions. At present, the scale of China's environmental protection enterprises is relatively small, and the market concentration is low. R&D achievements and industrialization mechanisms need to be improved. In the era of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, the government's guidance, vigorous encouragement and support for environment-friendly innovative companies can continuously promote economic development. At the same time, effective measures should be used to encourage scientific researchers, and to work closely with enterprises. While improving the innovation capability of enterprises, the process of applying new technologies for environmental protection will be accelerated.

Fourth, actively carrying out international cooperation is of vital importance. We can refer to internationally advanced environmental protection technology and management experience, and then sort out the tailor-made solutions. In addition, we should also work with countries along the Silk Road to deal with cross-border resource- and the environment-related problem. By actively applying our mature technology to serve science and diplomacy, we will explore a growth path of harmonious socioeconomic development with countries around the world and make contribution to global environmental governance.