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■ hainan daily omnimedia reporter li mengyao chen ziyi

an eco-friendly bag made from 10 plastic bottles costs $8.5 to make.

on september 4, at the "towards the 2030 agenda for sustainable development: think tank dialogue on green recovery and low-carbon development in east asia" event in boao, qionghai, a gray eco-friendly bag that was not very cost-effective aroused discussion among the participants.

environmentally friendly, but not cheap. "who will pay for it?" someone asked.

this is exactly the focus of the topic discussed by the participants: how to achieve an effective balance between environment and development. this is not a problem that can be solved by a certain department or industry. on that day, the think tank dialogue jointly organized by the china-asean environmental protection cooperation center, the ministry of ecology and environment's international cooperation and exchange center, hainan provincial ecology and environment department, and qionghai city attracted more than 100 domestic and foreign representatives from government agencies, international organizations, research institutions, enterprises and other industries to exchange ideas and seek common development.

showing off the “hainan opportunities”

green and low-carbon development has broad prospects

cooperation was one of the most frequently used words at the conference. during the dialogue, qian mingyu, director of the environment and circular economy department of the german agency for international cooperation, shared a research finding: when scientists studied rainfall in place a, they found that microplastics in it came from a distant place b.

this means that no region or country can stay out of the challenges of plastic pollution and climate change.

as ranjit singh, director of the international policy division of singapore's ministry of sustainability and the environment, said: countries cannot address these challenges alone, and international cooperation and global partnerships are more important than ever.

this is especially true for east asia.

"east asia and the pacific is one of the most dynamic regions in the world and also one of the most vulnerable to climate change." zhou guomei, director of the international cooperation department of the ministry of ecology and environment, believes that the holding of this think tank dialogue is timely given the interweaving of energy, environment, and climate issues.

this is not the first time that such an event has been held, and the venues that participants are familiar with are usually beijing, shanghai, guangzhou and other places.

why choose hainan? "whether in terms of climate, culture or development model, hainan and southeast asia have high similarities, and both sides have good conditions for dialogue and cooperation," said li xia, chief expert and professor-level senior engineer of the china-asean environmental protection cooperation center and the foreign cooperation and exchange center of the ministry of ecology and environment.

what are hainan's advantages in participating in international cooperation in the field of green and low-carbon development? "an efficient and stable policy environment, a sufficiently large market, and an industrial base with development potential." this is the answer given by zhao hailong, senior director of the development research department of the hainan international economic development bureau.

the unique wind power and photovoltaic energy, the broad application scenarios of hydrogen energy and methanol... on the big screen, slides filled with "hainan opportunities" were played one after another, attracting many participants to raise their mobile phones to take pictures.

"in recent years, hainan has made great progress in the construction of ecological civilization, especially now it is making intensive preparations for the closure and operation of the free trade port." li xia hopes to take this opportunity to enable the international community to better understand china and hainan, and also hopes to attract more east asian countries to join in regional green and low-carbon cooperation with hainan.

unveiling the "hainan plan"

the whole region's "plastic ban" work has been effective

the management and recycling of marine plastic waste was one of the topics of the think tank dialogue that day.

"plastic pollution has now become one of the most serious pollution in the world." wang qian, director of project planning at the united nations environment programme's china office, believes that reducing plastic pollution requires a holistic perspective and a global solution.

during the dialogue, solutions from hainan were frequently mentioned.

"hainan was the first to implement the 'plastic ban' work across the province. through local laws, local standards, plastic ban lists, supervision systems and alternative industries, it carried out 'marine sanitation' work against marine garbage, comprehensively strengthened the 'plastic ban' work on ships, and further established a multi-governance system for marine garbage management of 'fishing boats salvaging garbage' in the province, forming a set of plastic pollution control solutions with hainan characteristics that can be replicated and promoted." di weijie, deputy director of the hainan provincial department of ecology and environment, introduced.

"these measures are of reference value to the mekong river countries," said liu guohua, director of the sustainable energy and environment department of the mekong institute.

the ban on plastic has achieved remarkable results, but some problems still need to be solved. for example, let’s go back to this discussion: who will pay for an environmentally friendly bag that costs $8.5?

"new materials, new technologies, and new business models." when talking about solutions, jin chengcheng, senior project officer for sustainable blue economy at the beijing office of wwf switzerland, gave the above three keywords. "governments can stimulate the market to provide more sustainable alternatives and consumption scenarios through effective supervision and the formulation of incentives."

zhu ming, marketing director of singapore's ues holdings, also stressed the importance of technology. "only technologies that are cost-effective and in line with business logic can be accepted and promoted by the market." she said that as a company, they are doing their best to find such technologies and promote them commercially.

technological innovation, consumer education, intelligent supervision... during the dialogue, the clash of views sparked many new ideas and solutions.

"many of the views shared by experts today will help us further carry out the ban on plastics in a scientific manner and enhance hainan's ability to adapt to climate change, such as continuously promoting the reduction of plastic production and use at the source, and regulating the resource utilization of plastic waste and the coordinated control of greenhouse gases." mao dongli, director of the hainan provincial department of ecology and environment, said that hainan is vigorously developing new quality productivity with green and low-carbon as its distinctive characteristics. "i believe that this dialogue will have a good promoting effect on the construction of a beautiful hainan."

(hainan daily, boao, september 4)