Xi calls for unprecedented efforts to improve global environmental governance

BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping said Saturday that the international community should work together with unprecedented ambition and action to strive for a fair and reasonable system of global environmental governance featuring win-win cooperation and promote the sustainable development of humanity.

Xi made the remarks in a congratulatory letter to the World Environment Day events held in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Noting that this year marks the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, Xi said the World Environment Day events held in Pakistan under the theme of ecosystem restoration are of great significance.

Xi stressed that Earth is humanity's shared home, and a sound ecosystem is essential for the prosperity of civilizations.

The human race should respect nature, follow its laws, protect it, and endeavor to foster a new relationship where humans and nature can both prosper and live in harmony, he added.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, worsening desertification and frequent extreme weather events have all posed severe challenges to human survival and development, Xi said, noting that the world is in fact a community with a shared future where everyone is in the same boat.

Xi pointed out that the Chinese civilization has always valued harmony between humans and nature, and that ecological conservation has been incorporated into China's overall plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

As a participant, contributor and trailblazer in global ecological conservation, China is firmly committed to putting multilateralism into action and defending the international system with the UN at its core and the international order underpinned by international law so as to enhance global governance on the environment, Xi said.

Noting that China will host the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity later this year, Xi said China stands ready to discuss and draw up plans together with all parties for ecological conservation, inject new impetus into global environmental governance, foster a community of life for man and nature, and jointly build a clean and beautiful world.

In 1972, the United Nations designated June 5 as World Environment Day. The UN Environment Programme selects a member state every year to hold celebration events. The theme of this year's World Environment Day is ecosystem restoration.