New culture aims to save environment
16/10/2007 9:39
China will promote a conservation culture while moving to build a
moderately prosperous society in all respects, Hu told the congress.
This
is believed to be the first time China has called for a conservation culture in
a keynote political document.
"(We will) promote a conservation culture
by basically forming an energy and resource-efficient and environment-friendly
structure of industries, pattern of growth and mode of consumption," Hu
said.
"Awareness of conservation will be firmly established in the whole
of society."
Hu said China will have a large-scale recycling economy and
considerably increase the proportion of renewable energy sources in total energy
consumption.
It will bring the discharge of major pollutants under
effective control and notably improve ecological and environmental
quality.
Hu said China's economic growth has been realized at an
excessively high cost of resources and the environment, before listing other
difficulties and problems that hinder China's development.
"We must give
prominence to building a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society in
our strategy for industrialization and modernization and get every organization
and family to act accordingly," Hu said.
A report released last month by
the national environment watchdog said China's overall environmental situation
is still serious, with frequent pollution accidents affecting the quality of
life for many people.
Last year, 842 pollution accidents were reported,
including 482 water pollution cases, 232 air pollution cases, 45 cases caused by
solid waste, 10 in the ocean and six involving noise and vibration
damage.
The country's discharges of sulfur dioxide in 2006 reached 25.89
million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 percent, the report said.
In
September last year, two chemical plants in central China's Hunan Province
illegally discharged a highly toxic arsenic compound into a tributary of China's
second biggest freshwater lake, Dongting, leading to the suspension of water
supplies to at least 80,000 local residents for a week.
A severe algae
outbreak in Taihu, the third biggest freshwater lake in the country, at the end
of May this year triggered a scare after the sudden outbreak of the smelly algae
cut tap water supplies to more than one million residents in Wuxi, a city in
eastern China's Jiangsu Province.
Hu's remarks aroused instant attention
and commendation among congress delegates and China observers.
Pan Yue,
vice director of the State Environmental Protection Administration and a
congress delegate, said Hu ranked the promotion of conservation as one of "the
new and higher requirements" in building a moderately prosperous society, and
every organization and family will be involved.
Xinhua
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