On November 1, the 7th China-Germany Environmental Forum was held in Taicang, Suzhou, Jiangsu. The theme of the forum was "Promoting Green and Sustainable Development-Coordinated Response to Pollution, Biodiversity Loss and Climate Change". Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu, Minister of the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (hereinafter referred to as the German Ministry of Environment) Lemke, and Deputy Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Governor Xu Kunlin attended the forum and delivered speeches.

In his speech, Huang Runqiu pointed out that at present, the world is facing three major crises: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, and global action, global response and global cooperation must be carried out. The Chinese government has always attached great importance to the construction of ecological civilization and the protection of the ecological environment. In the past ten years, under the guidance of Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought, China's ecological civilization construction has made great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention, and has achieved remarkable results in green development, pollution prevention, and ecological protection. China will continue to uphold the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, unswervingly follow the path of civilized development of production development, affluent life, and good ecology, and promote stronger, green and healthy global development. Over the years, the China-Germany Environmental Forum has effectively promoted the implementation of the results of the consultations between the Chinese and German governments. China is willing to take this forum as an opportunity to jointly implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, continue to promote practical cooperation between China and Germany in the fields of environmental protection, green finance, biodiversity protection and ecological restoration, plastic pollution control, chemicals and solid waste management, and strengthen communication and coordination in global and regional environmental affairs, We will jointly contribute wisdom and strength to deal with global environmental problems and promote global sustainable development.

Lemke thanked China for its efforts to promote the "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework" (hereinafter referred to as the "Kunming Framework") as the chairman of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). Appreciate China's great achievements in environmental protection in recent years, and positively evaluate the long-term friendly cooperative relationship between China and Germany in the field of ecological environment and climate and the positive results achieved. She said that although some progress has been made in global environmental protection, we still face huge challenges in terms of climate crisis, species extinction and environmental pollution. China and Germany are two important economies, and they also need to play a pioneering role in environmental protection. Germany is willing to discuss with China how to jointly find solutions, formulate clear rules and agreements to reach pragmatic international cooperation, and ensure that every country can take action. The reliable and cooperative relationship between China and Germany is very valuable. It is hoped that both sides will take more measures and actions to deepen practical cooperation, implement the best innovative solutions and countermeasures, and jointly promote the realization of global sustainable development goals.

Xu Kunlin welcomed all the guests attending the forum and thanked people from all walks of life who cared about and supported the development of Jiangsu. He said that in recent years, Jiangsu has deeply practiced Xi Jinping's thoughts on ecological civilization, adhered to the path of ecological priority and green development, and achieved a continuous decline in major pollutants and a significant improvement in the quality of the ecological environment under the background that the total economic volume continues to reach a new level. Jiangsu has a deep relationship with Germany. In recent years, investment and trade are active, friendship cities have frequent exchanges, and political and business interactions are close. The two sides have continuously strengthened cooperation in the field of environmental protection, and a number of "green leaders" in Sino-German cooperation have emerged at an accelerated pace, providing new impetus for the realization of green, low-carbon and sustainable development. We are willing to take this forum as an opportunity to learn from Germany's good experience, explore new opportunities for green cooperation, further promote environmental governance cooperation, deepen green industry cooperation, and strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation. Welcome more German enterprises to invest in Jiangsu, deeply cultivate Jiangsu, deeply participate in green manufacturing, energy utilization, industrial upgrading and other fields, so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results and create a better future in the green transformation of Jiangsu.

During the forum, Huang Runqiu also held bilateral talks with Lemke and met with Torsten, chairman of the board of directors of the German International Cooperation Agency, and had in-depth exchanges on Sino-German cooperation in the field of ecological environment.

During the talks with Lemke, Huang Runqiu highly affirmed the good cooperative relationship between China and Germany in the field of ecological environment, thanked Germany for its strong support to China as the chairman of COP15, and is willing to continue to deepen practical cooperation with Germany in the field of ecological environment and jointly promote the full implementation of the "Kunming framework. Lemke spoke highly of China's contribution to promoting biodiversity conservation, and hoped that the two sides would further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in plastic pollution control, circular economy and other fields to jointly address global environmental and climate challenges.

When meeting with Torsten, Huang Runqiu said that green is the background of Sino-German cooperation, thanked the German International Cooperation Agency for its role as a link in promoting the development of relations between the two governments, and looked forward to further strengthening cooperation in environmental protection, climate change and other fields to promote more practical results. Torsten appreciates China's achievements in the field of ecological environment, and is willing to deepen cooperation with China, give full play to its own strengths, and promote cooperation between China and Germany or with third parties.

During his stay in Taicang, Huang Runqiu also investigated Schaeffler (China) Co., Ltd. and Su State Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

The current Sino-German Environmental Forum is one of the important activities to implement the results of the seventh round of Sino-German government consultations held by the prime ministers of the two countries in Berlin in June 2023. The forum was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the German Ministry of Environment, the People's Government of Jiangsu Province, and the German Economic Asia-Pacific Committee. More than 200 representatives from Chinese and German government departments, academic groups and enterprises attended the meeting.

Source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment