China's green and low-carbon development makes new strides

China now runs the world's largest carbon market, covering 60 percent of national emissions, China's Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu said at a press conference on Friday.

To date, 1.12 billion kW of coal-fired power capacity and 950 million tonnes of crude steel capacity have undergone ultra-low emission upgrades across entire processes or key projects.

Meanwhile, China has also launched a voluntary greenhouse gas emissions trading market and accelerated efforts to establish a carbon footprint management system for products.

The development of a green low-carbon economy has allowed the quality of the country's ecological environment to continue to improve, with continually enhanced air and water quality and water environment.

The proportion of days with good air quality increased by 1.7 percentage points year on year, while the proportion of surface water with fairly good quality also rose by 0.7 percentage point compared to last year. Huang expressed confidence in achieving the ecological environment improvement goals set for the 14th Five-Year Plan and aims to end on a high note while laying a solid foundation for the next five years.