Editor's note: Glaciers, widely viewed as an indicator to climate change, are melting significantly. What can scientists do to stop the net loss of glaciers? And in China's southwest, what measures are taken to make the Bryde's whales visit the Beibu Gulf every year? In this special episode of Closer to China, let's take a closer look at the environmental conservation efforts taken in China.

To President Xi Jinping, people should protect nature and preserve the environment like we protect our eyes. "Green" is the third of President Xi's five "New Development Concepts," his overarching economic guidelines. It was the first time that ecology was elevated to first-rank national priority. "Beautiful" is one of the six aspirational adjectives that describe the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. But a country can't claim to be "beautiful" if its air, water and soil is severely polluted. The Chinese people have become more vocal in condemning pollution and more active in fighting it. Sustainable, green development is an absolute requirement for China to achieve its national goals. President Xi said, "The ecological environment is a major political issue related to the Party's mission and purpose." The distinctive themes of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization are the relationship between human beings and nature, environmental protection and economic development, and the environment and people's well-being. We present two diverse case studies on Ecological Civilization: protecting glaciers and protecting whales.

Glaciers are a critical component of the ecological system for two reasons: they are a source of fresh water and they are sensitive monitors of climate change. China is working to guard its glaciers, via continuous assessment and new technologies. More broadly, in 2021, China's central bank launched a monetary policy instrument to support carbon reduction projects through low-cost lending to financial institutions, while requiring certain enterprises to report their carbon emissions. In addition, the country's carbon trading program, which is the world's largest in terms of the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions covered, involving over 2,000 companies in the power sector, is boosting climate investment and financing. The government is studying how to expand carbon trading to more industrial sectors.

Protecting Bryde's whales - by restoring coral reefs, preventing garbage dumping and limiting fishing - exemplifies biodiversity, an element of Ecological Civilization. More broadly, a revised Marine Environment Protection Law highlights five features: a marine environment supervision and management system; land and sea coordination and regional linkage; marine biodiversity; control of marine pollution discharge, such as sewage; control of marine garbage pollution, such as processing of solid waste on beaches. China is committed to biodiversity.

Though China has achieved specific environmental successes, we mustn't lose sight of the magnitude of the country's environmental problems, all generated by rapid industrialization. Take plastic pollution: because China is the world's largest producer and consumer of plastics, in 2020 alone China produced about 60 million tons of plastic waste, some of which breaks down into microplastic particles that are ingested by fish and go right up the food chain to human consumption. Here's a piece of good news. In a major turning point in China's campaign to tackle climate change, China's fossil fuel use is projected to peak in 2024 and to begin to decline in 2025. Moreover, pollution violations will be punished severely. President Xi said that problems in environmental protection relate largely to "the imperfect system" where "the system is not strict, the rule of law is not strict, the implementation is not in place, and the punishment is not effective." In establishing National Ecology Day on August 15, progress in ecological civilization under President Xi was noted. This included, from 2012 to 2022, while average annual economic growth was 6.6 percent, average annual energy consumption growth was only 3 percent, and the energy consumption per RMB10,000 of GDP in 2021 was 26.4 percent lower than in 2012. It was in 2005 that then Zhejiang Party Secretary Xi Jinping first voiced the now ubiquitous slogan, "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." I can attest first-hand that President Xi's environmental concerns go way back, for that is what he told me in 2006 in Hangzhou in person. Ecological Civilization has both a back history and a bright future.

(Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a renowned expert on China. For more than 30 years, he has worked with China's leaders and advised the Chinese government. Dr. Kuhn was awarded the prestigious "China Reform Friendship Medal" and "Chinese Government Friendship Award," the highest honors China gives to foreign nationals for their contribution to the country's development.)