The 2023 Guiyang International Forum on Ecological Civilization opens, and Nanming River builds a model of China''s green and low-carbon watershed

On July 8, 2023, the Guiyang International Forum on Ecological Civilization 2023 opened in Guiyang. Vice Premier of the State Council Liu Guozhong attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Li Bingjun, Deputy Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and Governor, delivered a welcome speech.

Opening Ceremony of the 2023 Guiyang International Forum on Ecological Civilization

Liu Guozhong stated that the Guiyang International Forum on Ecological Civilization, as a national level international forum, has been successfully held for ten years. Now, the forum has become an important platform for promoting global ecological civilization construction and sustainable development. China will continue to accelerate the green transformation of its development mode, continuously strengthen environmental pollution prevention and control, focus on improving ecosystem diversity, stability, and sustainability, and solidly and orderly promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality. We are willing to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with countries around the world, actively participate in global environmental governance, and jointly promote the construction of global ecological civilization to a new level.

Vice Premier of the State Council Liu Guozhong attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech

Li Bingjun said that Guizhou is an important ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, and a national ecological civilization pilot zone. Guizhou will continue to consolidate its ecological environment advantages, solidly promote green and low-carbon development, continuously deepen institutional and mechanism innovation, and make every effort to create a green and healthy life. It will adhere to ecological priority and green development, accelerate the construction of an ecological civilization pilot zone, and strive to make new achievements in ecological civilization construction.

Li Bingjun, Deputy Secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and Governor, delivered a welcome speech

The theme of this forum is "Seeking Harmonious Coexistence and Modernization between Humans and Nature - Promoting Green and Low Carbon Development". It revolves around four sections: "Green and Low Carbon Development", "Ecological Protection and Pollution Prevention and Control", and "International Exchange and Cooperation", with 17 themed forums. Among them, the "Technology Leading Green Development - Technology Empowering Karst Ecological Environment and Resource Utilization" forum was held on July 7th, focusing on extensive exchanges and in-depth discussions in the fields of karst ecological environment and resource utilization, carbon peak and carbon neutrality, water pollution prevention and control.

On site forum

Zhang Jingping, Vice Governor of Guizhou Provincial People's Government and member of the Party Leadership Group of Guizhou Provincial People's Government, Xue Qikun, Academician of the CAS Member, President of South University of Science and Technology, and Guo Chengzhan, President of China Environmental Protection Industry Association delivered speeches. More than 120 experts and scholars from home and abroad, including Liu Congqiang, Yang Xueming and Hu Ruizhong, academicians of the CAS Member, Larson Soryang, executive president of the Norwegian Institute of Water Research, Peng Yongzhen, academician of the CAE Member, Liu Ke, foreign academician of the Australian Academy of Technology Science and Engineering, Zhou Chunsong, academician of the European Academy of Natural Sciences, Huang Jing, director of the China Agenda 21 Management Center, Li Jinhui, professor in chief of the School of Environment of Tsinghua University, Hou Feng, chairman of the China Water Environment Group, Wu Yabin, director of the Investment and Technology Promotion Office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, attended.

Liu Congqiang, academician of the CAS Member, delivered a keynote speech

Liu Congqiang, an academician of the CAS Member, mentioned in his keynote speech entitled "Southwest Karst Society - Ecosystem Science and Urban Rural Development" that the southwest region is located in the upper reaches of the the Pearl River and Yangtze River basins. The quality of the ecosystem directly affects the ecological environment and social development of the lower reaches of the two basins, and its importance is self-evident. He believes that social systems should be integrated into natural systems for research, in order to address sustainable development issues in karst and fragile ecological areas.

Larson Solyang, Executive Director of the Norwegian Institute of Water Research, delivered a keynote speech

Larson Solyang, Executive Director of the Norwegian Institute of Water Research, stated that the environmental situations in Europe and China are similar, both facing challenges such as biodiversity loss, overexploitation and utilization of natural resources, the impacts of climate change, and various environmental risks. I am pleased to see that China, including Guizhou, has achieved significant results in environmental governance over the past few years. The sharing of experience between China and Europe is very important, and it is necessary to explore more solutions from the aspects of green laws and regulations, policy formulation, finance, etc.

Peng Yongzhen, academician of the CAE Member, delivered a keynote speech

Peng Yongzhen, an academician of the CAE Member, put forward thoughts and suggestions on China's urban sewage treatment standards. He said that to do a good job in domestic urban sewage treatment discharge standards, it is necessary to pay more attention to the evaluation and demonstration of discharge standards, provide more accurate scales and reliable basis, and fundamentally control water environment pollution.

In recent years, certain progress has been made in ecological environment governance and protection in karst areas. At the urban scale, Nanming River in Guiyang City has taken the lead in adopting a distributed sinking regenerated water ecosystem for comprehensive management, becoming a model of mountain city river management with "clear water, green banks, fish swimming in shallow bottoms, and white egrets flying". The technological achievements of this system have also been included in six national technology catalogs.

Hou Feng, Chairman of China Water Environment Group, delivered a keynote speech

Hou Feng, Chairman of China Water Environment Group, said that Nanming River is an innovation and practice of the world's first city scale distributed sinking recycled water system. Compared with the traditional centralized construction mode, this system saves 45% of investment, saves 500 million tons of inter regional water transfer and saves more than a thousand acres of land annually. At the same time, treating sewage as a resource, achieving 100% of land resources, water resources, and green energy, not only solves the problem of water environment governance, but also realizes industrial development and resource utilization, and achieves the sustainable development goal of coordinated pollution reduction and carbon reduction.

At the meeting, the forum also released and condensed a series of major scientific and technological achievements projects, proposing innovative ways of green development from the perspectives of the thinking mode of karst ecological environment protection and scientific top-level design. Through the exemplary experience of Guizhou geography and karst environmental protection, it provided a scientific model for global ecological environment protection and sustainable development.

The Guiyang International Forum on Ecological Civilization is the first national and international forum in China with the theme of ecological civilization. Since its establishment in 2009, it has successfully held 11 sessions and has become a window for showcasing the "China Plan" and "Guizhou Practice" of ecological civilization construction.