More than 4 million USD from Norway, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will be invested to help 31 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions draft programs to fight climate change in the next two years, organizers said in Beijing on Monday.

The project, called the Provincial Programs for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in China, will start with Norway and the EU helping 14 pilot provinces and autonomous regions develop guidelines for their environmental programs, slated for completion by the end of the year. Most of the 14 pilot provinces are situated in the western and northern parts of the country, which are thought to be more prone to natural disasters and extreme weather conditions.

The selected provinces are "very representative", said the director-general of China'sNational Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) climate change office, Su Wei. "The pilot areas were picked because they are where we can make a real breakthrough, to set examples and push forward the project by targeting provincial-level regions," Su said. One of the 14 pilot provinces, Qinghai, is expected to address its retreating glaciers as part of the program, officials said, but details on the drafting of the programs were not yet available.

The scheme will be widened to the rest of the 17 provinces and regions, based on the experience of the pilot areas. Each of the 14 pilot provinces should have its own program and the rest should have outlines of their program by 2010, the NDRC has said.

"The finalization of such plans for all provinces of China will be a remarkable achievement, which I think will meet broad international recognition and be an inspiration and model for many other countries," Norwegian embassy environmental counselor Per Schive said. The latest project follows a memorandum of understanding reached between the NDRC, the UNDP, and Norway, which was signed in March last year.

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News category: Norway

Published on this site: Jul. 1, 2008
Source:chinadaily.com.cn