The State Council Information Office held a meeting with Chinese and foreign media at 3 pm on Thursday, February 18th, 2016, and invited Chen Jining, Minister of Environmental Protection, to introduce the situation of promoting air pollution control and strengthening environmental protection, and to answer questions from reporters.
[Chen Jining]While affirming the achievements, we also see that there is still a big gap between the environment in China and the requirements and expectations of ordinary people. Today’s environmental problems in China can be summarized into three sentences: serious environmental pollution, high environmental risk and great ecological loss. Everyone is concerned about PM2.5. In 2015, 265 cities in 338 prefecture-level cities and above failed to meet the standards, and the average number of days exceeding the standard reached 23.3%. In terms of water pollution, the number of inferior V water bodies is decreasing, but the problems of urban black and odorous water bodies, pollution of some tributaries and eutrophication of lakes are still very serious. We are indeed facing a very serious environmental situation.
We should also see the pressure. The environmental pressure in China today is closely related to our development stage. China’s modernization process with a population of more than one billion, with such a large volume, such a fast speed and such a short time, has greater environmental pressure than other countries in the world. In the process of human modernization for more than 200 years, no more than 30 countries have achieved industrialization with a population of no more than 1 billion, mainly countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We are developing to solve environmental problems, which is a huge challenge with much higher complexity and difficulty. We should focus on improving the quality of the environment, maintain strategic strength, be anxious, and do nothing, implement the strictest environmental protection system and fight a protracted war; Tactically, we should make clear the phased goals, fight hard and promote the solution of environmental problems step by step.
In addition, I want to emphasize here. China’s modernization process is an open process, and so is solving China’s environmental problems. We have carried out a lot of international cooperation in the environment, and solved our problems by learning from international advanced experience and introducing international advanced technology. Solving China’s environmental problems is helpful to the whole mankind. Why? Now it is the OECD countries that have completed the modernization process, China has completed the modernization process of another billion people, and there are still 6-7 people in the world who are also one billion people in the process of modernization. Therefore, China’s experience is also helpful for other countries to complete the modernization process. Judging from the present situation, China will solve environmental problems earlier, better and greener than developed countries in the process of modernization. I believe that these valuable experiences and our exploration will play a positive role in the modernization process of other countries. I think China’s environmental problems are closely related to China’s modernization process, and we need an open mind to look at and solve our problems with a broad vision. So I’ll give you a brief introduction of some basic information. If you have any questions, you can ask them.
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