Part 1

Host: Hello, everyone, this is Chinadaily.com.cn. Welcome to our interview series program. I am your host Cai Muyuan. Today, we've invited a heavyweight figure into our studio, a man of many titles. He's spent a lot of energy on China's philanthropy works, and has been called the Top Philanthropist in China. He was also cited as a national Earthquake Relief Hero, National Moral Model and so on. Let's welcome Mr Chen Guangbiao, chairman of Jiangsu Huangpu Recycling Resources Co Ltd.

Chen: Hello. There is another important title that you did not mention, I've changed my name to Chen Ditan (meaning low carbon in Chinese), and I am also a pioneer of the low carbon development in China.

Host: Yes, we will discuss this question later on. Actually it happens to be my first question, the media reports were focused on your charity works, but recently, they gradually shifted to your low carbon efforts. This is mainly because some reports said that you are changing your name to Chen Ditan, in an effort to advocate for the low carbon perspective. Can you tell us, do you have any other moves that may help push the low carbon movement?

Chen: Low carbon and environmental protection are not slogans, practical actions trump everything else. I've been in the renewable resource utilization business for a long time. Now I run the largest high-technology environment-friendly dismounting company in the country. And it is also the only company capable of recycling construction waste. I was dedicated to this field just as I have been to philanthropy.

I believe environmental protection and low carbon works are the biggest philanthropy for human beings and the earth as well. So, I ride a bicycle when I go to the office. I said that if anyone ever spotted me sitting in cars heading to or leaving the office, I would give this person 10,000 yuan ($1,521). I have been riding bicycles for many years. Including this year's NPC and CPPCC meetings, I ride bicycles to the meetings. I have hundreds of environmental friendly bags with me. The slogan "Everybody is responsible for a low carbon life" is printed on these bags. I distributed these bags to NPC and CPPCC members.

I think we have to speed up on environmental protection works. China's gross domestic product (GDP) is stable now, and 30 years of reform and opening up process also succeeded. I am gratified and delighted to see these results. China's economy has no other option in the future. The only way is to develop low carbon works and a low carbon economy.

There are loads of gold mines in the country's environmental protection and low carbon industries. I made an appeal several years ago, calling on Shanxi's coal mine bosses and organized real estate speculators to transfer their capital to the cities' household garbage and construction waste sorting businesses. It is a high-tech industry. I would like to share with you my ideas and technologies learned from other countries. You can see that household garbage and construction waste have surrounded so many beautiful cites nowadays. Landfills would take up a lot of arable land and would contaminate the soil as well as groundwater. It will generate invisible man-made diseases in the future, and can jeopardize our descendants' health. I am extremely worried about it.

My family decided to change our names, I hope it can bring some awareness to the public. Why I changed my name to Chen Ditan, my wife's name to Zhang Lvse (meaning "green"), my two children's names to Chen Huanbao (environmental protection) and Chen Huanjing (environment).

The public had fun with the news, but what else can you find? You have to think about it carefully. Especially entrepreneurs, who would rather sacrifice the environment and the future generation when pursuing maximum profits. It is not the right way. The country's resources are shrinking day by day. Why wouldn't we save more resources and leave them to our children? Some people enjoy buying vehicles with high emissions, but it is a waste of underground resources. Is it necessary? No, it's not.

So a low carbon lifestyle should be encouraged vigorously. I called for the setup of environment police forces, now we have forest police, why shouldn't we establish an environment police? I also suggested that personnel management at the provincial, municipal and county levels should be controlled directly by the central government's human resources ministry. This is the only way we can efficiently limit pollution. If we can build these two teams, China's carbon emission will drop at least 50 percent.

I suggested the legislation on housing demolition years ago. I was invited by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council last year, and raised 11 suggestions concerning how to balance relations among the developer, the house owner and the government. Eight of the suggestions were adopted by the office. One of the suggestions was that home buyers should show their hukou (household registration book) before purchasing a house, in a bid to curb prices. If newlyweds cannot afford a home, how can society be harmonious? The purchase limitation policies restrained the soaring price, and this was my proposal. I raised this suggestion to the government. I've been in the environmental protection and low carbon field for so many years, so I know the right way to solve these problems. We have to be practical, and solve the problem properly.

Chen Guangbiao: I'm worthy of the title 'Low Carbon Ambassador' (II)Chen Guangbiao: Mayors should focus on welfare, low-carbon economy (III)