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Best custodian of environment is people themselves

By Zuo Likun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-08-05 15:31

China's mammoth population is both the country biggest environment challenge and its strength, since people themselves are the best custodian of environments, a senior UN official said Thursday.

As China moves forward, the problem on environment is how to make certain that "the full message is fully understood, implemented all over China", Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator in China, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily website.

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A 2006 "China Environmental Awareness Program" campaign led by the United Nations Development Program was designed to raise Chinese citizens' awareness of their rights to clear water and clear air. Conveying those ideas to 1.3 billion people across all of China is no easy task, Malik said.

The sheer scale of the country also gives China an edge when it comes to environmental technology, the Pakistani diplomat explained.

"China can take an idea, do a manufacturing process, produce a product -- very few countries can do so as quickly as China. So there's a huge opportunity for China becoming a world leader in low carbon products, ideas, exports," he noted.

Malik also advocated the experimental wisdom in dealing with environmental problems, citing former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping that "crossing the stream while feeling the stones".

"China has never introduced macro policies all in one go, which is experimented, piloted, to see what works, what doesn't works, which is a very wise thing to do," he said.