XI: CHINA WILL TURN MORE DESERTS GREEN
| CHINA NEWS
China will continue to pursue green development, President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory letter to the Seventh Kubuqi International Desert Forum on Saturday. China has placed great emphasis on building an ecological civilisation and made great headway in the prevention and control of desertification, Mr Xi said in the letter to the opening ceremony to the two-day forum, which was held in Ordos, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
World to see China’s experience in environmental treatment
Containing desertification in the Kubuqi Desert allows the world to see China’s experience in environmental treatment as well as the country progressing toward the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals, he said, adding that China actively promoted alignment between international cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
“The Earth is the only home to human beings and anti-desertification is a great cause closely related to human development,” Mr Xi said. “China also stands ready to work with all sides to push forward global environmental governance and protection, and contribute to making the world a place with a well-preserved ecology.”
To implement the agenda, Mr Xi called for concerted efforts from the international community to enhance co-operation in combating desertification and promote global environmental governance.
UN congratulates China’s efforts
Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, sent a congratulatory letter to the forum in which he commended China for its enormous contribution to the governance of ecology and the environment. He said that the forum is an opportunity to share success stories in and beyond China.
China is a country that has been threatened by the encroachments of deserts.
The country has the world’s largest area of desert, covering 2.61 million square kilometres, accounting for a quarter of its total land. “However, China is also the country that witnessed the miracle of turning sandy land into green land.
“As the world’s biggest contributor to the increase of planted forests, China has achieved the UN goal of stopping desertification expansion by 2030,” said Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan at the forum.
Mr Sun also announced China’s anti-desertification goal, which is to bring half the country’s reversible desert land under control by next year and turn all reversible desert land into green land by 2050.