Introduction of expert team to advise on environmental issues illustrates nation's commitment to achieving stated climate goals.

 

A week before Zhang Xingying was due to attend this year's two sessions, the national political adviser and environmental professional had already prepared several proposals to submit to the conference. Most of them included green energy and urban adaptation to climate change.

 

This year, one major change has been made to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top political advisory body. The CPPCC meeting, along with that of the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, makes up the two sessions.

 

The change is the addition of a new group focused on the environment and natural resources, consisting of professionals in related fields like Zhang. It is the first time a new group has been launched by the top advisory body since a group focused on economics was added in 1993.

 

"I am very happy that we have this platform, and I am eager to meet and talk with all the advisers in the upcoming session," said Zhang, who is deputy head of the science and technology and climate change department at the China Meteorological Administration.

 

Zhang is a member of the new group. With 85 members, it is the ninth-largest of the 34 participating groups in the 14th CPPCC National Committee. A list of the committee's 2,172 members was issued on Jan 18, and its first session will open in Beijing on Saturday as the newly elected members gather to begin their five-year term.

 

During the annual sessions of provincial-level political advisory bodies earlier this year, many provincial CPPCC committees also launched their own groups to focus on the environment and natural resources.

 

Inclusive, representative

 

Experts said the founding of the group reflects China's environmental protection efforts and is also a measure to contribute to the country's carbon peak and neutrality goals, which are both intended to protect natural resources and safeguard the nation's energy security.

 

As an important channel for consultative democracy, the CPPCC has adapted to the times by launching the new group, which also reflects the body's inclusive and representative nature, they said.

 

Wang Xiaohong, a professor of united front theory at the Central Institute of Socialism, said: "The scientific group arrangement of the CPPCC embodies the socialist democracy of China. The arrangement of the participating groups is changing to make the advisory body inclusive, extensive and scientific." She added that the group has been included to help implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.

 

She said that the establishment of the group also reflects one of the five characteristics of Chinese-style modernization as mapped out at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: the harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.

 

"By bringing together experts on the environment and natural resources in the group, they can promote the country's high-quality development," she added.

 

Yang Zhongqi, chief expert at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, said the launching of the group is timely and necessary so the expert advisers can focus on related topics because China is in an important period of pursuing green development in all aspects.

 

The major and urgent challenge ahead is to realize the carbon peak and neutrality goals, Yang said, adding that this aim is expected to be the group's focus in future surveys and proposals.

 

Fresh focus

 

The CPPCC National Committee is reshuffled every five years. Its membership includes representatives of the CPC, noncommunist parties, mass organizations, ethnic groups and various parts of society.

 

As an important organ for multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the Party's leadership, the CPPCC members serve as advisers for government, legislative and judicial organs, and put forward proposals on major political and social issues.

 

Yang, a 70-year-old veteran forestry expert, has already served as a national political adviser for 10 years: a five-year term in the science and technology group during the 12th CPPCC National Committee and a further five years in the agriculture group during its successor.

 

Political advisers like Yang, engaged in the field of the environment and resources, used to be scattered across various groups, but they often took part in activities organized by work commissions on population, resources and the environment during recent CPPCC National Committees, he said.

 

Recent committees have had 10 work commissions focusing on different fields. The participants kept in touch with the different groups and organized members to help them perform their duties.

 

"Despite there being no such special group, the CPPCC and many political advisers paid great attention to environmental topics, and I can see that the number of environment-related proposals made by advisers has risen in recent years," Yang said.

 

During his 10 years' experience, he undertook many CPPCC-led surveys on environmental topics, and 60 percent of the 50 proposals he submitted were related to environmental protection, he said.

 

He remembers one proposal he made in 2014, when the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was about to start operations to provide 70 percent of the water in Beijing, all the water in Tianjin and a percentage in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province.

 

To ensure the correct quantity and good quality of the water sent to the northern cities, the protection of forests with water conservation capabilities along the Yangtze River became an urgent task. However, local people also had concerns that the efforts might also affect them as they couldn't build factories upstream that might pollute the water.

 

During a 10-day-plus survey, Yang spoke with officials, businesspeople and local people living around many upstream reservoirs to learn about their difficulties. Then, he made suggestions related to protection of the forests and compensation for the people involved.

 

"During the survey, we could reflect the various voices from the grassroots to the central government for their reference," he said, adding that the 2014 proposal contributed to later policies.

 

In addition to those achievements, Yang said that launching a participating group of advisers on the environment and natural resources will make the work go even more smoothly.

 

He added that preparatory work for the group's launch began during the 13th CPPCC National Committee, whose term will end at this year's gathering.

 

In 2019, the CPC leadership issued a document on improving the work of the CPPCC, requiring it to optimize its groups to become more representative, so they could better hear and reflect different voices and appeals to the Party and the government.

 

In August 2020, the 13th CPPCC National Committee's work commission on population, resources and the environment added 40 new members from the environment and resources fields, paving the way for the launch of the new group.

 

"Actively promoting the follow-up work on the creation of a group on resources and the environment" was written in the commission's work report on population, resources and the environment in 2020, according to Yang.

 

Collective wisdom

 

The list of names for the newly launched group shows that many of the 85 members have been reelected as advisers and they will soon begin serving another five-year term. Almost all of them have previously submitted proposals related to the environment and resources.

 

The members' professional backgrounds cover the ecological environment, natural resources, water projects, urban planning, forestry, meteorology, transportation, chemistry, law and other fields.

 

About 40 percent are government officials, including Huang Runqiu, minister of ecology and environment, Zhang Jianhua, director of the National Energy Administration, and officials from the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Natural Resources.

 

Some 30 percent are experts and scholars in related fields, including university presidents, directors of research institutes and academicians from both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

 

In addition, about 20 percent of the members work for energy and chemical companies, including China National Nuclear Power, Sinochem Holdings, State Grid and China Rare Earth.

 

Learn from discussions

 

Zhang, from the China Meteorological Administration, was a member of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, during which he served in the agricultural group.

 

"This year, we advisers in this group will be sitting together on many occasions to discuss various issues. A proposal or policy involves many government sectors, scholars and social organizations, and with the platform in this advisory body, we can sit and learn from each other about the latest developments of a certain issue and people's concerns," he said.

 

"Officials and scholars communicate with each other, which is helpful to the generation of great ideas. The process reflects the consultative democracy in China's political system. It also provides a platform for scientists and experts to share their views directly with government officials to implement good suggestions in the decision-making process in a faster and more efficient way."

 

This year, Zhang said he will put forward a proposal that the government should make preparations to build cities that can adapt to climate change at an early stage as the world has been undergoing extreme weather in recent years.

 

"When building cities, we should consider whether the buildings can withstand potential disasters, such as heat waves, while the sewage capacity can be tested by rainstorms in the future to ensure people's safety," he said.

 

"As a science and technology expert in the fields of environment and climate, I really hope to use my professional knowledge to protect Mother Earth by making suggestions via the advisory body."