CHINA / SOCIETY
Taikonaut calls for joint efforts to protect the Earth as Chinese cities celebrate Earth Hour
Published: Mar 26, 2023 08:01 PM Updated: Mar 26, 2023 07:57 PM
Photo: Courtesy of World Wide Fund For Nature

Photo: Courtesy of World Wide Fund For Nature


"Hope we can move together to protect the ecology on the Earth and build a clean and beautiful world," Chinese taikonaut Fei Junlong who currently deployed on China's space station sent special congratulations for Earth Hour held across China on Saturday, the Global Times learned from World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF).

Earth Hour is the flagship global environmental event of the WWF and was created in Sydney in 2007. Over the years, it has grown to become the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring individuals, communities, businesses and organizations to take tangible environmental action.

During the activities held in Kunshan, East China's Jiangsu Province, on Saturday, Fei showed the audience the a view of Earth from in-orbit space station, which he said "looks like a green emerald inlaid in the blue sea, crystal clear but fragile and lonely."

Photo: Courtesy of World Wide Fund For Nature

Photo: Courtesy of World Wide Fund For Nature

Besides Kunshan, activities were also held other Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen jointly by WWF together with local authorities and non-governmental organizations. Lights at some landmark and office buildings in these cities were turned off between 8:30-9:30 pm in an effort to help call for more people becoming aware of the need to protect the Earth, the WWF told the Global Times.

During a forum held in Beijing themed on China-Africa cooperation, Li Xia, director of the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center of the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment, noted that China had conducted talks with nearly 2,000 participants in total from China and African over climate change, covering topics ranging from climate adaptation, sustainable investment and financing to low carbon and sustainable infrastructure. But more important work of our cooperation is to turn talks into actions.

"Africa is by no means the destination of China's transfer of polluting industries. Why? Because the Chinese government never thinks so, because the cooperation between us is a reciprocal cooperation, and our cooperation is actually a win-win cooperation of mutual benefit," Li said. She noted that a focus of China is to make use of the platforms we have, such as the ASEAN cooperation forum, to figure out a suitable development plan for Africa.

WWF Kenya representative Jackson Kiplagat expressed his appreciation to participants to the forum who keep paying attention to the relationship and cooperation between Africa and China.

After years of engagement, South-South cooperation has become an important platform for mutually beneficial partnership between China and developing countries, WWF China's chief program officer Zhou Fei said at the Beijing forum.

In recent years, as the problem of global climate change has become increasingly serious, the Chinese government has invested heavily in funds and professional resources to raise the capapability of developing countries to cope with climate change. And this has been widely recognized by the international community, Zhou noted.

This year, the WWF also optimized the logo of the Earth Hour activity replacing the design of 60+ with 60 to enhance the concept of one hour. The new design takes a clock as a source of inspiration, conveying the idea that time is flying, more people are needed to dedicate an hour for the Earth in order to create a beautiful future in which man and nature live in harmony, the WWF said.