MEP Vice Minister Zhang Lijun met with Director of Sustainable Consumption and Production Division, UNEP-DTIE, Arab Hoballah and representatives from Dow Chemical. They exchanged views on stepping up capacity building in environmental emergency response. 

Zhang Lijun noted, "China is now at the middle-to-late stage of industrialization which is accompanied by frequent occurrence of environmental accidents. In recent years the national environmental protection authority alone have to deal with over 100 environmental accidents every year, most of which were caused by unsound chemical production or transportation. The Ministry of Environmental Protection pays high attention to various environmental emergencies and our capacity in emergency response has been greatly improved since the water pollution accident of the Songhua River. Environmental protection departments at all levels have accumulated rich experience in dealing with environmental accidents. In the meantime, the Chinese government continues to increase input in capacity building in environmental emergency response. As a result, the response team has further improved their capabilities. However, facing the increasingly grim environmental situation, we understand it is necessary and helpful to enhance China's environmental management in emergency response through learning from advanced technologies and ideas. This project aimed at promoting safe production and emergency response of China's chemical industry, jointly initiated by MEP, UNEP and Dow Chemical, will play an important role in helping China to deal with environmental accidents with more active attitude and effective measures by means of diverse cooperation projects that enhance community's capacity in emergency preparedness, response and safe management of chemicals at local level. We believe frank exchanges, closer cooperation and mutual learning among the three partners will make the project a complete success. " 

After the meeting relevant official of MEP and representatives from UNEP and Dow Chemical attended the signing ceremony, marking the formal start of the project on promoting safe production and emergency response of China's chemical industry.