CPPCC establishes new sector on environment and natural resources

China's top political advisory body has set up a new sector on environment and natural resources consisting of 85 names, according to a full list of members of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The list was issued early Wednesday morning and was approved at the 25th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee that concluded on Tuesday.

The newly launched sector focusing on environment and natural resources includes Party and government officials as well as experts and scholars in the field, such as Huang Runqiu, the minister of ecology and environment.

Shi Taifeng, a CPC Central Committee Political Bureau member and head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, said it is to adapt to the CPPCC's sector setting adjustment needs.

During the provincial two sessions held earlier this month, over 30 provincial CPPCC committees have launched a new sector focusing on environment and resources.

The CPPCC National Committee, the country's top political advisory body, is reshuffled every five years. The first session of the new CPPCC National Committee will start on March 4 in Beijing, when a new chairperson will be elected.

Its members have been divided into 34 participating groups, including representatives from the Communist Party of China, non-CPC political parties, people's organizations, ethnic minority groups and various sectors of society, compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and returned overseas Chinese citizens.

Among the 2,172 members of the new CPPCC National Committee, 852 are from the Communist Party of China, accounting for 39.2 percent of the total, while non-CPC members account for 60.8 percent.

All the 56 ethnic groups of China are represented in the nation's top advisory body.

The average age of members is 56.6, and 2,037 of them hold college degrees or above, with 125 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

The CPPCC is an important organ for multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, as well as an important means of promoting socialist democracy in China's political activities.

In practice, CPPCC members serve as advisers for government, legislative and judicial organs and put forward proposals on major political and social issues.