On 23rd May 2011, the National Coordination Group for Stockholm Convention Implementation (referred to as NCG) organized a press training workshop to mark the tenth anniversary since China became a signatory of the Stockholm Convention, with the expectation to attract attention, to seek support and to encourage participation from every corner of the society for Convention implementation. The audience was briefed with the progress and the achievements China made over the past decade, and the background information regarding the newly listed persistent organic pollutants (POPs) was shared. The key issues occurred during the international negotiations for the multilateral environmental agreements were also introduced. The workshop officially kicked off a series of events for raising public awareness and outreach.

Being a responsible country and bearing the people’s health and the environment in mind, China became a signatory right after the Convention was adopted and made a solemn commitment to work closely with the international community for reducing and eliminating POPs.

During the last decade, the Chinese government paid great attention to the POPs issue and took great measures for Convention implementation to protect the people’s health and the environment, promote sustainable development and safeguard the global environmental safety.

With the efforts over the last decade, a mechanism for convention implementation was established. With the activities for capacity enhancement taking place, outstanding POPs related issues were tackled. The production, distribution, use, import and export of the pesticide POPs were completely banned in China, which symbolized the achievement of the interim target for convention implementation. However, it is fully recognized that there remains a tough way forward because more chemicals are listed and with more knowledge about chemicals, the society has greater expectation for a better environment. It is believed that a wide range of participation and support from the society as a whole is in great need. The publicity enhancement and awareness raising via press outreach will undoubtedly benefit the work. Therefore, a series of activities aiming to highlight the achievements including drawing/photography/short film contests over the past decade will be launched over various media such as radio broadcasting, television, newspaper, and network.

The meeting was chaired by WEN Wurui, Director-General of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office of MEP. Mr. LI Xinmin, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Pollution Prevention and Control of MEP and Deputy Director of the office of NCG, made a keynote speech. The meeting was also attended by Mr. YU Lifeng, Deputy Director of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office of MEP and Deputy Director of NCG, and Mr. LIU Guozheng, Secretary-General of Environmental Journalists. The event was also participated by the representatives covering 54 news agencies including People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, CCTV, Central People’s Broadcasting Station, China Environment News, and China Daily, etc.(translated by Chen Yu)