Vice Minister Zhang Lijun of MEP met with Ms. Astrid Klug, German Parlimentary State Secretary in Beijing on September 25. The two sides exchanged their views on further cooperation in such areas as chemical management, administration of environment-waste, environmental protection industry and water resource management.

Vice Minister Zhang on behalf of MEP welcomed the delegation led by Ms. Klug and briefly introduced to the guests about the progress of environmental protection work in China. He said, the Chinese Government attached great importance to environmental protection work and taken a series of policy measures to promote the work in an all round way. First, in emission reduction field, the emissions of two major pollutants went down in 2007 thanks to the common efforts of all sectors of the whole society. That is, both COD and SO₂ had the downward "turning point" for the first time in 2007. The total emissions of major pollutants across the country continued the reduction in the first 6 months of 2008. To be more specific, SO₂ emission went down by 3.96％ and COD discharge went down by 2.48% compared with that of the same period of 2007. The effect of the binding indicators emerged. Second, there will be remarkable rise of pollution treatment capacity. We will strive for 70% of sewage being treated by the year 2010 with 80% treatment rate of urban sewage in major cities and 90% treatment rate in provincial capitals and municipalities directly under the State Council. The total capacity of thermal power generation sets with desulphurization facilities is 300 million kW?h, taking up 50% of the total thermal installed capacity of China. It is expected that this percent will raise to 60% by 2010. Third, the air quality of Beijing during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games met national air quality standard, honoring its commitment of "Green Olympics" to the international communities. Fourth, a group of environmental problems concerned by the public have been addressed. We have carried out a series of special environmental law enforcement campaigns over the past few years to crack down enterprises with environmental infringements with significant achievements. Fifth, public environmental awareness has big increase with high public initiatives in participating environmental protection. The Regulations on the Disclosure of Environmental Information (on Trial) coming into effects as of May 1 of 2008 has facilitated and standardized the disclosure of environmental information by the competent environmental protection administrative departments and enterprises, safeguarded the right of citizens, juridical person and other organizations getting access to environmental information, which has greatly promoted public participation in environmental protection. Sixth, environmental safety has enjoyed effective guarantee in major disasters. For example, facing major natural disasters like the rare freezing weather in South China in the beginning of this year and Wenchuan earthquake in May, environmental protection departments had quick response with effective remedy work, which ensured environmental safety in the disaster hit region.

Klug appreciated the high attention to China-German environmental cooperation paid by the Chinese Government. She hoped that the two sides further deepen and expand cooperation areas such as chemical management, sludge treatment and e-waste management and carry out fruitful cooperation.