On the morning of October 14, Ecological Civilization Forum, the only onsite activity of 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) kicked off in Kunming of Yunnan. On the opening ceremony, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) awarded the fifth batch of National Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration Area and innovation bases of practicing “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.” Yancheng was honored as the fifth batch of National Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration City, as the fourth in our province. Huang Runqiu, President of COP 15 and Minster of MEE gave the award to Deputy Party Secretary and Acting Mayor Zhou Bin.

    In recent years, Yancheng has persisted in Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Progress, implementing the central and provincial deployment, deeply carrying on the people-centered development philosophy, and strengthening the idea of “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.”. We should make continuous efforts in improving ecological environment, people’s sense of ecological achievement, the  prosperity of ecological culture and ecological protection, contributing to the steady progress towards Beautiful Yancheng.  

    9 obligatory targets in ecological environment required by the 13^th Five Year Plan and phased task of pollution control have all been completed. In terms of air quality, Yancheng ranks as Tier II municipalities while concerning water environmental quality national and provincial examination qualified rate reaches 100%. Moreover, Yancheng is expanding the influence of Yellow Sea wetland as a world natural heritage, profoundly implementing wetland restoration and full-coverage treatment of Chuanchang River, Xinyang Port and Tongyu River, transforming the ecological advantage to development advantage through further integration among “ecology plus” culture, tourism and healthcare. Besides, Yancheng published local laws and regulations such as Regulations on Yancheng Yellow Sea Wetland Protection and Rules on Yancheng Greening, completing related systems including ecological compensation, environmental credit rating, pollutants discharge licence and ecological and environmental damage compensation, then promoting the change from taking temporary solution to effecting a permanent cure in environmental protection and substantially improving ecological environmental treatment system and proficiency.