CHINA’S top legislature has designated Aug. 15 as National Ecology Day, as the country strives to enhance environmental conservation for the construction of an ecological civilization. A draft decision on establishing the day was submitted to a session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NCP) for deliberation Monday. It was passed Wednesday. The country will hold various publicity and education activities on the day to advocate ecological civilization, the committee said in a media release. The establishment of the day will further promote ecological approaches to the public. It is expected to help raise awareness about ecological civilization and make more people proactively support environmental protection in terms of both thinking and actions, the committee noted. The country’s environmental protection efforts have seen sweeping, historic and transformative changes since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in late 2012, said Liang Ying, an official with the NPC’s Legislative Affairs Commission. The establishment of the day is of great significance, as it will help consistently promote China’s ecological civilization process, he said. He called on relevant government bodies to seize the opportunity to prepare various activities with rich content to celebrate the first National Ecology Day. When reporting to the NPC standing committee on the draft decision to set up the day Monday, Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, provided a series of numbers to demonstrate the achievements China has made in promoting ecological civilization. From 2012 to last year, China managed to support average annual economic growth of 6.2%, with a yearly increase of 3% in energy consumption, he said. During that time, the country’s energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 26.4%, which is equivalent to reducing the consumption of standard coal by over 1.4 billion metric tons. Many national political advisers and legislators have proposed establishing a National Ecology Day in recent years. Some provinces and cities have already set up regional ecology days, including Zhejiang and Guizhou provinces and Xi’an, Capital of Shaanxi Province, he said. Chinese lawmakers also voted Wednesday to pass a new law on building a barrier-free living environment, which will take effect Sept. 1. The law, consisting of eight chapters, was approved at a three-day session of the Standing Committee of the 14th NPC that ended Wednesday. The new law makes provisions regarding the construction of accessible facilities, accessible information exchanges and social services, guarantee measures, supervision and management, and liability. Underscoring the need to improve the daily lives of disabled and elderly people, the legislation stipulates that other groups with barrier-free needs may enjoy the facilities as well. China had about 85 million people with disabilities, and 267 million elderly people aged 60 and above by the end of 2021. Other groups that may benefit from such facilities include pregnant women, children, and the sick and injured. (China Daily, Xinhua) | 