Xuzhou setting example for green development

As it adds the prestigious UN-Habitat Scroll to its cabinet of accolades, Xuzhou, located in East China's Jiangsu province, is not content to rest on its laurels. The city promises to become an international model of human settlement and development.

According to Zhou Tiegen, Communist Party of China secretary of Xuzhou, the award is motivation for the city to work toward better results.

"The award marks a starting point for us to forge ahead on the path of green and sustainable development with local characteristics. We hope to offer some smart solutions and practice samples for settlements development in the China and across the globe," he said.

Xuzhou used to be a heavy industrial base and a resource-exhausted city, Zhou said, but they have made painstaking efforts to restore the ecological environment in the recent past, achieving remarkable transformation.

Zhou said Suzhou offers a replicable example for other resource-based cities in China and the world in their efforts to improve human settlement environments and pursue sustainable development.

With a population of over 10 million, Xuzhou had a problem — solid waste treatment, but managed to transform itself through the establishment of a comprehensive solid waste system.

This included the classification of waste into categories and rewarding residents for separating garbage with points. More than a third of household waste is now recycled.

"Through intelligent source control, networked collection and transfer, recycling and centralized terminal treatment, we have achieved minimization, resource utilization and harmless treatment of solid waste, creating the ’Xuzhou model’ in solid waste management," he said.

The city's population, starting with children, has been educated on the importance of proper solid waste management. Xuzhou has become a national pilot city for the recycling and utilization of renewable resources, which has been extended to 166 cities in China.

As a developing city, Zhou said Xuzhou still has enormous growth potential in its pursuit of sustainable development and human settlement improvement.

"We look forward to learning from advanced expertise and best practices in other cities and further enhance our local environment, thus making our due contribution to the global improvement of human settlement," he said.

Zhou said in order to promote ecological protection in Xuzhou, they are building a clean and beautiful home.

He called Xuzhou a "big family" for people in the city, saying they regard a favorable ecological environment as the most inclusive welfare for people's livelihood, in order to make it cleaner, more beautiful, and livable.

"We will manage the city as a home, build the home as a park and transform burdens to resources so the people in the city can share an ecological environment favorable for life and work," he said.

In recent years, the city has been implementing the guidelines of President Xi Jinping on ecological development, following the principle of ecological priority and green development and grasping the characteristics of Xuzhou's development. This is in addition to accelerating industrial, urban and ecological transformation.

In terms of industrial transformation, Zhou said the city is accelerating the green transformation of industrial, energy and transportation structures. They are also focusing on building an advanced manufacturing system and a modern service system. They are also stepping up efforts to make breakthroughs in industrial transformation.

Through benchmarking with the first-rate cities in China and the world, Zhou said the city will set a higher standard for urban development and improve modern infrastructure, optimizing the urban functional layout. This is in addition to improving housing security and boosting the pride, sense of identity and belonging to the local people.

"We will further be committed to environmental protection responsibilities. We will step up efforts in ecological restoration, implement the action plans of preventing and treating air, water and soil pollution, and bring back blue sky, starry night, clear water, green scenery and swimming fish to our people," he said.

Zhou said Xuzhou is committed to deepening international cooperation. "We would like to strengthen cooperation with UN-Habitat and UN environment and engage in more project partnerships. We will also draw lessons from best practices of other countries and territories."