SEPA Minister Zhou Shengxian met with Monique Barbut, the visiting newly appointed President and CEO of Global Environment Facility (GEF) at SEPA building today. Both sides had in-depth discussions and exchanges on the cooperation on biodiversity, land degradation, and POPs.

Minister Zhou introduced the going changes of the country's environmental protection cause. He said that not long ago Chinese Government made major adjustments to the strategy for development of environmental protection, proposing the three historical transformations as the guideline of environmental protection work, that is, first, to transform from emphasizing economic growth and neglecting environmental protection to paying equal attention to both; second, to transform from the fact that environmental protection lags behind economic development to making the former keep pace with the latter; third, to transform from protecting the environment mainly by administrative approaches to solving environmental problems through a combination of legal, economic, technical and necessary administrative means. Based on the guideline, the country identified the working thought of "making progress in all sectors and laying focus on the priorities", that is, while paying attention to all the environmental issues faced by the country in the urbanization and industrialization processes, China will lay the emphasis on pollution control and identify the priority to ensure drinking water safety. At the same time, according to Kyoto Protocol and related international conventions, Chinese Government put forward a goal in the 11^th Five-Year Plan to reduce the energy consumption per unit GDP by 20% and cut down the emissions of major pollutants by 10%. The government also allocates the targets to governments at all levels and all sectors concerned.

Minister Zhou expressed his welcome to Ms. Barbut for her first visit to China after her appointment. He said that as the only international foundation targeted at environmental protection, GEF has long been trying to realize the environmental benefits around the world through grants and supports for the environment cause in developing countries. Since GEF was established, both sides have enjoyed wide areas of cooperation, solid working basis and great market potentials. He hoped that under the leadership of President Barbut, GEF would continue its concerns with and supports for China's environmental protection cause, and contribute to China and even the world environmental protection by in-depth cooperation in the areas of biodiversity and POPs pollution.

Mr. Barbut said that as one of the key partners of GEF, China plays an increasingly important role in environmental protection around the world. GEF would intensify the strategic cooperation with China, in order to jointly explore a new mechanism that would promote the world environmental protection.