Expressed full support to UNEP-IEMP’s South-South cooperation endeavor during the town-hall meeting
Beijing, 7 September 2016: Mr Erik Solheim, in his first official mission to China, held a town-hall meeting with the UN Environment China team. Mr Zhang Shigang, Country Coordinator of UN Environment China Office and Mr Liu Jian, Director of UNEP-IEMP delivered a joint presentation highlighting the work of both offices. Fifty-five members from both teams participated in the meeting.
The key highlights of ED’s address were:
- Stated that China will be the ‘absolute centre’ of what he as an ED would like to do
- Mentioned that protecting ecosystems, tackling pollution, green finance to remain the key priorities
- Applauded Chinese leadership support on the Paris agreement, eco-civilization, and green finance
- Urged colleagues to develop a ‘solution-oriented’ approach at work
- Asked colleagues to communicate regularly in ‘easy-to-understand language’; work closely with people to drive change
After noting UNEP-IEMP’s work covering 4 regions and 17 countries and the newly approved Flagship Programme on Climate, Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CEL), he hailed the progress made and expressed his unstinted support to the Centre in its South-South cooperation endeavor by closely working with China.
His views on CEL included the following: 1) delivering environmental solutions to reduce poverty (Sustainable Development Goal 1; 2) including pollution control- air, soil and water ; 3) promoting climate smart agriculture, to protect forest and wildlife, and to be more effective and productive.
Speaking about the main environmental issues in China and UN Environment-at-large, Mr Sohleim highlighted the following areas: 1) protecting ecosystems for future generations; 2) tackling pollution and expressed confidence that China will be at the forefront in solving this issue; 3) need for green finance and its key role in fighting environmental issues; 4) oceans to be a priority and UN Environment expects China to be a leader in this domain as well.
Prior to this, he also had bilateral meetings with heads of national partners in China- National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Environment Protection (MEP), Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE).
