CA21 Update - Progress on China's
Agenda 21
CA21 Update No.2 December 10, 1995
Brief News
Local and Sectoral Agenda 21
Local and Sectoral Agenda 21 and Action Plans
In July 1994, the State Council issued a directive calling on each province, autonomous region, municipality and government sectors to implement China's Agenda 21 at the level of day-to-day management in local and sectoral governments. In February 1995, SPC and SSTC issued a directive requesting the action that local and sectoral governments should achieve a better understanding of the overall strategy of China's Agenda 21 in order to integrate the principle of sustainable development into their Ninth Five-year plans and plans to the year 2010.
Some government agencies have already formulated sectoral Agenda 21. Other activities include training, mobilization of public awareness, and women's participation in sustainable development. The Ministry of Forestry has formulated its "Forestry Action Plan for China's Agenda 21" in accordance with Agenda 21, "The Statement of Principles for Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests, and China's Agenda 21." The Ministry of Agriculture has also formulated a plan for integrating China's Agenda 21 into the Ninth Five-year Plan for agricultural and rural economic development. The Ministry of Chemical Industry's plan for integration of China's Agenda 21 into the Ninth Five-year Plan has achieved the harmony between development of the chemical industry and the environment. National Environmental Protection Agency(NEPA) formulates China's Environmental Protection Action Plan (1991-2000), NEPA's Action Plan for China's Agenda 21, and the China Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan. The Ministry of Construction has published a book, titled "Sustainable Human Settlements", as part of its efforts to promote awareness of the sustainable development strategy, etc..
Many local government are also adopting plans for implementing China's Agenda 21 in their respective jurisdictions. In fact, as of August 1995, eleven provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, or about 37% of the country's total, had established their own leading groups for local Agenda 21 or formulated corresponding action plans. Beijing plans to carefully examine and improve its energy structure and spatial planning, develop more satellite towns, and carry out afforestation so as to achieve 40% green cover by the year 2000. Priorities in the Sichuan's local Agenda 21 are population control, poverty alleviation and meet of basic needs, development of alternative energy sources such as hydro, biomass, and solar energy, and air pollution control, with a target of less than 1.5 million tons of dust and particles emissions per year by the year 2000. Xinjiang's projects designed to combat desertification and control land degradation in the region have been recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme as outstanding achievements in the field. An emission filtration plant has been set up at Benxi Iron and Steel Factory, which reduces about 40 tons of dust per day, or a total of 100,000 tons since filtering began. Nanyang has set up demonstration projects of cleaner production with an emphasis on the development of biomass energy, etc..(Zhou Hongchun)
China's Sustainable Development Networking Programme
The Administrative Centre for China's Agenda 21 has proposed a plan for establishing and implementing China's Sustainable Development Networking Programme (CSDNP) through its Information Unit. Its development objective focuses on increasing the capacity for information exchange and sustainable development services at the national and sub-national levels, and in this way promoting the implementation of China's Agenda 21 and its Priority Programme. A feasibility study and project proposal were recently completed and submitted to UNDP. These were approved, and financial support for the three-year programme is expected to begin as of January 1996.
The national administrative node for CSDNP, ACCA21's Information Unit, will take on the role of coordinator or mediator for various stakeholders. That is, it will serve as an effective link between sources of information and their users, as well as between various government branches and all non-government sectors of society. Its small size and organizational structure make it well suited for this purpose. Among potential users of CSDNP are government agencies, academic and research institutions, productive enterprises, and NGOs.
The primary goals of the first phase of CSDNP are to foster information sharing among certain branches of the government, to allow open access to general information about the progress of Chinese Agenda 21 implementation, and to create catalogues of information on other existing data (metadata) and make these widely accessible. CSDNP will meet these goals not only through use and development of information technology but also through many training and capacity building activities.
In particular, the immediate objectives of CSDNP include the following: strengthening the managerial capacities of the network's national administrative node, setting up the node's local area network, providing information services about sustainable development in China to domestic and international users, developing guidelines for CSDNP metadata, developing metadata databases from various relevant government agencies, and developing and using training materials and courses for CSDNP.
An especially innovative tool adopted by CSDNP is the use of metadata, or pointers to and information about existing data. Simply informing the public and other sectors about what information is available and where it can be found significantly increases the prospects for participation in and thus successful implementation of sustainable development. Moreover, an approach which starts with information sharing within a certain scope will be politically more palatable than any other option.
In addition, the guidelines will also be used for the formulation of metadata databases about sustainable development, China's Agenda 21, and about CA21's Priority Programmes.
The technologies selected for CSDNP will make full use of existing public networking systems and telecommunication resources. In addition, they will be compatible with international network protocols and interface standards in order to ensure easier connectivity and access, and will leave room for future expansion, upgrading, and integration with other systems. Specific technologies to be used during the first three-year phase include hardware and software application tools for network management, databases, and other functions of the administrative node's computers. CSDNP will also provide information services such as GOPHER, FTP metadata, Wide Area Information Server (WAIS), and Chinese and English World Wide Web home pages about sustainable development, progress on China's Agenda 21, and projects of the priority programme.
Domestic and international experts will develop a curriculum for training on both metadata implementation and information technologies. There are plans for a total of four training programmes to be held at ACCA21, with twenty participants each trainees will be selected from central, provincial, and local levels, and from both governmental and non-governmental organizations. In addition, two workshops will be held for stakeholders and participants in CSDNP, in which issues such as technical progress and obstacles, information sharing progress, and national and international cooperation will be discussed.
China's Sustainable Development Networking Programme strives to be consistent the UNDP principles for CSDNP while also creating a system which can be realized within China's institutional, political, and social structure. UNDP's financial support from this project will be used to greatly enhance access to information about sustainability within China, and hence, China's ability to successfully and efficiently carry out its national and local Agenda 21's and their Priority Programme. (Wang Qiming)
European UNION Mission to China on Cooperation
in Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development
In preparation for the first meeting of the Environmental Working Group under the EU-China Joint Committee scheduled in October 1995, the European Union (EU) dispatched a factfinding mission to China on cooperation in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development during 9-28 July, 1995. The mission's objective was to propose a basis for future cooperation between the EU and China in the field of environment and sustainable development and to make specific recommendations about actions to be undertaken.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economy Cooperation (MOFTEC), the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC) arranged the visit programme of the EU mission and proposed a cooperation framework and project list. The Administrative Centre for China's Agenda 21 was responsible for all specific arrangements in its role as the liaison office.
Headed by professor P. Harremoes, former president of the International Water Quality Association, the mission consisted of six specialists was met by and made extensive discussions with officials from MOFTEC, State Planning Commission (SPC), National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) and representatives from the Committee of Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation of the National People's Congress.
Mme. Deng Nan Vice-Chairperson of SSTC, met with all delegates of the mission and introduced them to China's Agenda 21 and the implementation status of its priority projects on 14 July. Out of the provinces recommended by SSTC, the mission visited Liaoning, Anhui, Jiangsu, Guizhou and Hebei province.
In consultation with the Chinese hosts, the mission proposed the following main issues as the basis for future cooperation: 1) integrated environmental management; 2) dissemination of knowledge and awareness; and 3) facilitation of economic cooperation. In this regard, the mission identified seven projects suitable for future investigation, including a project for setting up a Sino-European Institute for Integrated Environmental Management and Sustainable Development (IIEMSD). Proposed as a financially independent and jointly managed economic entity between China and the European Union and encouraged to be demand driven through the generation of revenues, the IIEMSD would become a resource centre for advanced environmental management studies and training; be a window for Sino-European exchange of environmental professionals and best practices; act as a facilitator for economic cooperation ventures between European and Chinese environmental entrepreneurs; and act as an information centre on Chinese and European environmental management and technology.
Mission members and responsible officials from the International Trade & Economic Relation Department of MOFTEC and Science & Technology for Social Development Department of SSTC were in attendance at a wrap-up meeting held at MOFTEC. Consensus was reached on issues of common interest.
A Chinese delegation consisting of representatives from MOFTEC, SSTC and NEPA, etc. participated in the first meeting of the Environmental Working Group under the EU-China Joint Committee held in Brussels on 9 October. During this meeting environmental policy developments since 1992, EU policy on external environmental cooperation, and priorities for future environmental cooperation were discussed. A second European Union Mission is expected to come to China for discussion of further cooperative issues in December of this year. (Huang Jing)
Experimental Zones of Sustainable Development in Towns and Urban Areas
Beginning in 1992, the State Science and Technology Commission, State Planning Commission, State Commission for Restructuring the Economy, and twenty-eight other ministries began work in some provinces on experimental zones for sustainable development. These zones are a testing ground for the use of science and technology as a means of coordinating natural resource, environment, and socioeconomic factors. More specifically, work in the zones includes the development of social security systems, universal education and health care, and the adjustment of industrial structure
Sustainable development strategies to be adopted include the following:
- Pay attention to township and urban planning, particularly to infrastructure, including roads, drinking water, waste water treatment, electricity, and telecommunications;
- Emphasis on full use of available resources, for example the comprehensive use of crop stalks and mine tailings;
- Dissemination of cleaner production and cleaner energy sources as a means to prevent industrial pollution;
- Protection of land and water resources for sustainable agriculture
Leadership by local governments and public and enterprise participation are essential to the implementation of these strategies. Furthermore, the transfer of sound environmental and cleaner production technologies to local enterprises is also necessary.(Zhang Song)
Sino-European Workshop on Sustainable Development and Urban Management
The Sino-European Workshop on Sustainable Development and Urban Management was held in Beijing from 6-9 November, 1995. The nearly 40 participants included officials from relevant Chinese ministries and commissions, mayors and officials from Beijing, Chengdu, and other large and medium-sized cities, officials and experts from the French Ministry of the Environment and from Antwerp, Belgium; and representatives from the European Union Delegation to China.
Topics discussed at the workshop included the concept and policies of sustainable urban development in China and in Europe; experiences and challenges faced in the formulation and implementation of local Agenda 21's; financial mechanisms for the promotion of sustainable urban development and management; promotion of cleaner production; and industrial disaster prevention. The European participants also expressed great interest in their site visits to experimental zones for sustainable development in western district of Beijing, and in Zhengding county, Hebei province.
After the workshop, representatives from the French Ministry of Environment, the French-based United Towns Development Agency, and the Administrative Centre for China's Agenda 21 summarized the workshop and agreed to cooperate in the future on personnel training as well as a case study of sustainable urban development in one Chinese city.(Zhang Jiayuan)
Editor's postscript
CA21 Update is a bulletin issued by ACCA21 to report progress on CA21 implementation; important initiatives on strategies, policies, measures, and action plans for sustainable development; and international cooperation on the implementation of CA21 to the domestic and international communities.
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Edited by the Administrative Centre for China's
Agenda 21
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