Why did Zhejiang win the United Nations ＂Earth Champion Award＂？

　　Recently, the United Nations Environment Programme released the 2023 United Nations "Guardian of the Earth Award". Among them, the "Blue Cycle" marine plastic waste management model declared by Zhejiang Province received this environmental honor.

　　This is the first time that Zhejiang has received the highest-level environmental protection honor from the United Nations after the "Ten Million Project" and "Ant Forest" project. It vividly interprets the vivid practice of the Supreme Leader’s ecological civilization thought in Zhejiang, verifies China’s commitment to green development and green governance, and demonstrates our country’s positive contribution to the construction of global ecological civilization.

　　"Guardian of the Earth Award" blooms three times

　　Chen Xiaofang, a 74-year-old fisherman on Huangjiaodao Island in Luqiao District, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, has a new income. "Every day, she spends her spare time picking up plastic waste on the coastline and sending it to a fixed collection point, which can increase her income by about 700 yuan a month," Chen Xiaofang said.

　　Through the Internet of Things, blockchain and other technologies, more than 6,300 low-income people and fishermen, 10,180 ships and more than 230 enterprises in Zhejiang have jointly participated in the new model of marine plastic waste management, "Blue Cycle", which has realized the visualization and traceability of the whole process of marine plastics "from ocean to shelf", and fed back the benefits to the front-line collectors involved in marine plastic recycling, effectively improving the plastic pollution in coastal waters.

　　"Currently, the’blue cycle ‘is being promoted across the country. In the future, it is expected to lead more than 200,000 Chinese fishing boats, bring tens of thousands of low-income coastal people, and tens of thousands of enterprises to participate in marine debris management, achieve marine ecological diversity and co-governance, and provide sustainable and replicable Chinese solutions for the world," said Lang Wenrong, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment.

　　Marine plastic pollution is one of the outstanding problems in the global marine environment. According to the United Nations Environment Programme report, plastic products are the largest, most harmful and most persistent part of marine litter, accounting for at least 85% of the total marine litter.

　　"The’Champions of the Earth Award ‘is the UN’s highest honor in the field of the environment.’ Blue Cycle ‘can set an inspiring example for governments, businesses and communities around the world that want to take action to reduce plastic pollution," said Du Ruihe, UN Environment’s representative in China.

　　Since 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme has awarded the "Earth Champion Award" every year to recognize governments, organizations, and individuals that have had a transformative impact on the environment. On September 27, 2018, the "Thousand Villages Demonstration and Ten Thousand Villages Renovation" project in Zhejiang Province received the honor; on September 19, 2019, the "Ant Forest" project launched by Alipay won the award.

　　Vividly demonstrate the grass-roots practice of ecological civilization thought

　　Lujia Village, Anji County, the stream gurgling, tree-lined. A 4.5-kilometer sightseeing train around the village strung together more than a dozen characteristic family farms along the way.

　　"In the past, the villagers of Lujia Village had a jingle: ‘Garbage is blown by the wind, sewage is evaporated, mosquitoes and flies fly all over the sky, and the stench blows all year round,’" said Qiu Liqin, deputy party secretary of Lujia Village and director of the village committee. "Now the whole village of Lujia Village is a scenic spot, and the door is a garden."

　　In 2018, Qiu Liqin, on behalf of the thousands of cadres and people in Zhejiang who have been involved in the construction of the "Million Project" rural living environment since 2003, held the trophy of the "Guardian of the Earth" at the award ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. She said that five years later, Lujia Village will not only be more beautiful, but also more dynamic.

　　In recent years, Lujia Village has vigorously developed rural tourism and created Internet celebrity tourism projects such as family farms. The "company + village + family farm" business model has given villagers more sense of gain in the joint construction and shared development.

　　From the "Million Project" to the Ant Forest, and then to the "Blue Cycle", the concept of "Green Water and Green Mountain is Gold and Silver Mountain" is vividly displayed.

　　Chen Guanghui, 46, one of the founding members of the "blue cycle" model, grew up on the coast of Taizhou and witnessed the sea from "full of little crabs and jumping fish" to pollution and now gradually recovering.

　　Zhejiang is located in the middle section of the eastern coastline of China, with a sea area of 260,000 square kilometers. The number of islands and the length of the coastline rank first in China. The development of island tourism and offshore aquaculture is an important source of income for Zhejiang coastal people, but offshore plastic waste has also increased.

　　"The’blue cycle ‘innovation solves the problem of’where people come from, where money comes from, and whether it is sustainable’ in marine waste management, allowing low-income people to gain benefits in the process of participating in marine environmental protection, and achieving a’win-win ‘for ecology and people. We see that the data of recycled marine waste and waste plastics has been increasing," Chen Guanghui said.

　　Practicing the idea of ecological civilization, our country has continuously strengthened the top-level design, issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization" and the "Overall Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System", implemented the "Strictest Environmental Protection Law in History", and formulated and revised the "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law", "Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law", "Yangtze River Protection Law" and many other laws.

　　China’s experience has been highly recognized by the international community

　　The Blue Cycle model, which has collected more than 10,000 tonnes of marine debris so far, is China’s largest marine plastic waste recycling project and was awarded the "Business Excellence Award" in the Champions of the Earth Award, according to a statement issued by the United Nations Environment Programme.

　　"For the sake of our health and the ecology of the planet, we must end plastic pollution," said Inge Annosen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. "The Blue Cycle shows how innovative solutions work, inspires us to revisit the relationship between humans and plastics, and shows the possibility of combining technology and sustainable development."

　　The "Ten Million Project" promotes the creation of China’s rural revitalization model, which solves the development problems of social, economic and environmental dimensions, and is highly in line with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

　　Erik Solheim, former UN deputy secretary-general and executive director of UNEP, has witnessed the transformation of rural China. "The river in some of the villages here used to be called’Milk River ‘by the villagers, and now it’s back to its original appearance," he said. "People walking by the river, relaxing on benches, and turning natural scenery into a resource for economic development are huge opportunities for Zhejiang."

　　Zhejiang is the epitome of our country’s practice of green development. In the past ten years in the new era, the country’s cumulative afforestation 1.02 billion mu, forest coverage rate has reached 24.02%, and the area of artificial forest preservation has reached 1.314 billion mu, ranking first in the world; the proportion of coal in primary energy consumption has dropped from 68.5% to 56%, and the national unit GDP carbon dioxide emissions have dropped by 34.4%.

　　The process of modernization in which man and nature coexist in harmony has profoundly changed China and influenced the world.

　　"Up there is paradise, down there is Su and Hang," is a saying that Nabiran Mohammad Hanure, a professor at the Ali-Farabi Kazakh National University in Kazakhstan, was familiar with decades ago when he studied in China. He was later invited to visit Zhejiang, where he marveled at the region’s natural beauty and the concept of ecological benefits for the people, which the scholar called a true "ecological paradise."

　　Mohammed Hanure said that a good environment helps to form a social atmosphere that advocates ecological civilization, and prompts individuals to transform their thoughts into conscious actions to protect the ecology, which is also the inspiration that China has brought to the world. (Our reporters Shang Yiying, Zhu Han, Huang Xiao, Zheng Mengyu, Li Hualing)