China will promote a conservation culture while moving to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Hu Jintao said in his political report yesterday.

It is believed to be the first time such a call has been made in a keynote political document.

"(We will) promote a conservation culture by forming an energy- and resource-efficient and environment-friendly structure of industries, pattern of growth and mode of consumption," Hu said at the opening ceremony of the 17th CPC National Congress, a five-yearly event.

"Awareness of conservation will be firmly established in the whole of society," he said.

Hu said China will have a large-scale circular economy and considerably increase the proportion of renewable energy sources in total energy consumption, bring the discharge of major pollutants under effective control and notably improve ecological and environmental quality.

He said economic growth had been realized at an excessively high cost to resources and the environment, before listing other difficulties and problems that hinder the country'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," he 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.

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-largest 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-largest freshwater lake in the country, at the end of May triggered a scare after the pungent bloom affected the tap water supply to more than 1 million residents in Wuxi, a city in eastern Jiangsu Province.

Remarks draw attention

Hu's remarks aroused the immediate attention of delegates to the CPC congress and observers of China.

Pan Yue, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration and a delegate at the congress, said he noticed Hu has put the promotion of a conservation culture as one of "the new and higher requirements" in building a moderately prosperous society, and that every organization and family shall be involved in the drive.

"It fully reflects the importance of conservation culture to the Chinese nation," the senior environment official said.

Wang Zhigang, another congress delegate, said: "I think the conservation culture is part of the concept of a harmonious society. The development of society must be based on a conservation culture."

European countries are becoming more and more aware of China's role in addressing environmental issues. Pollution and climate change are global issues that cannot be solved without China, said Federico Rampini, chief correspondent with the Beijing office of the Italian newspaper The Republic.

"It is a very good development that the environment topic is included in the report. It shows the Chinese Communist Party has put environmental issues in a very important position on its agenda," said Rampini, who has worked in China for four years.

Han Qingxiang, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, said the concept of a conservation culture is an introspection of environment deterioration and the relationship between people and nature, and it advocates a harmonious relationship by forming a resource-efficient, environment-friendly and sustainable structure of industries.

Xinhua

(China Daily 10/16/2007 page6)