The “Green Forum” – as the key event for the Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum and Exhibition (MIECF) – invited many VIP speakers to attend. Each year at MIECF, the “Green Forum” attracts experts, scholars and industry pioneers from all over the world to come to explore a series of top environmental issues. Nowadays, the “Green Forum” has become one of the major environmental events of the international environmental protection sector, especially in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region, the European Union and Portuguese-speaking Countries.

This year’s “Green Forum” invited 55 environmental protection pioneers, leaders of multinational enterprises involved in environmental protection, and policymakers from places including Mainland China, the United States, Australia, Brazil, the U.K., Japan, Portugal, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macao. Speeches were delivered on various topics, such as policy regarding innovative green development, manufacturing business strategy, coastal tourism, green building industry and so on.

Today’s (31 March) “Green Forum” covered various discussion sessions. In particular, that on “The Blueprint for Innovative Green Development” was the second joint “Green Forum” session between the MIECF organiser and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China, with the previous one held at 2014MIECF. This year a number of experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection discussed the hottest topics on the development of national green innovation, including the country’s eco-environmental protection plan under the 13th Five-Year Plan, the “Green Belt and Road”, as well as strategy for environmental protection and renewable energy and experience sharing on successful work in the field of green innovation and development.

In his keynote speech, Mr Tao Xiaosong, Chief of Comprehensive Division of the General Office of the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, discussed the situation regarding China’s environmental protection and the overall work plan for the environmental sector. He said that last year, the Ministry had emphasised pollution control relating to air, water and soil quality. The work on environmental protection had made positive progress. In the period covering the 13th Five-Year Plan, the national economy would set into a ‘new normal’, with opportunities and challenges coexisting with regard to environmental protection.

Mr Tao pointed out that the overall ideas of the 13th Five-Year Plan with regard to environmental protection covered many topics, focusing on improving the quality of the environment via all aspects of environmental protection. A more stringent environmental protection system would be implemented, forming a joint environmental management system between the government, enterprises and the public. Three major campaigns would fight, respectively, against air, water and soil pollution via prevention and control methods, fully implementing the country’s “soil pollution control action plan”; improving levels of environmental management in “five” directions, namely the systematic, the scientific, the legalised, the specific and the information-based. These initiatives would assist in: promoting the implementation of reform in ecological and environmental protection areas; optimizing the spatial pattern of ecological civilization construction; enhancing the rule of law and developing recognised standards; actively promoting structural reform of the supply side of the economy; building comprehensive processes and systems for multi-level environmental risk prevention; and promoting innovation of environmental science and technology.

Another “Green Forum” session, “The Ways to Drive Higher Performance in Green Buildings” explored innovative, cutting-edge technology and strategies on low-energy use in green buildings and green building solutions for manufacturing industry, government and the hospitality industry. The meeting invited Mr Wong Kam-sing, Secretary for the Environment of Hong Kong SAR, as the keynote speaker on the theme of “Hong Kong Climate Action Blueprint 2030+: Climate Change and Green Building”.

Mr Wong said that the development of green building is very important for every city. In Hong Kong, 90 percent of the electricity generated was for indoor use. The development of green building is the most important element in terms of energy saving, carbon reduction, air improvement and assisting in maintenance of biodiversity. Green construction is an opportunity to build a healthier, more liveable and energy-efficient building at a reasonable price. At the same time, various policies and incentives should be developed in order to encourage more developers and building designers to put green construction in practice. He pointed out it is very important for developed cities to increase energy efficiency in existing buildings. There are also many difficulties ahead. Lack of awareness of the building users can make green building design less effective than it might be. In addition, infrastructure construction relating to a planned small-sized district or new development area should all be combined within the concept of green construction. But overall a development must also be able to integrate with the relevant policies of a city

Mr Achim Steiner, Former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, the current Director of the Oxford Martin School, and International Vice-Chair of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), hosted a special session called “Harnessing Environmental Innovation as Key Driver for Sustainable Development”. He pointed out that many countries had in recent times damaged their environment during economic development. The market has to develop new products to solve the problems caused by environmental damage. Government can formulate policies and measures to provide incentives to support the development of new environmentally-friendly products. But it is more important that people have a good sense of environmental protection, he said. The government should take a systematic approach in considering a variety of environmental pollution issues, in educating the public and industry in order to deepen understanding of environmental pollution problems, and in changing people’s way of using and producing products. The most important goal of market innovation was to protect the environment. There were many new models of production and products in this area that had been proven to be successful. It was expected that in the future, the green economy could find fresh models to follow regarding balancing economic development and environmental protection.

The “Green Forum” explores current environmental issues.

Mr Achim Steiner hosts a special session called “Harnessing Environmental Innovation as Key Driver for Sustainable Development”.