Experts hail China's achievements, calling for Sino-Danish cooperation

China's achievements in promoting sustainable development over the past decades and its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2060 have been highly appreciated by experts from Denmark, as they call for deeper cooperation between China and Denmark in the circular economy to battle climate change.

"The fact that China has taken a clear path of sustainability and managed to 'walk on two legs' -- sustainability and poverty alleviation is very impressive," said Thomas Ostrup Moller, Danish ambassador to China.

He made the remarks on Thursday at a conference in Sino-Danish collaboration on circular economy held in Beijing, offline and online. The meeting was also attended by dozens of officials and experts from Denmark and China, in which they expressed their expectation for further bilateral cooperation in sustainable development and fighting climate change.

Both China and Denmark have made their commitments and strategy in going green. China has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, as listed in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). Denmark has targeted climate neutrality by 2050.

The ambassador said he believes that Denmark and China "have a shared and vested interest" in working together to pave the road for enhancing circular economy for a green and carbon neutral future for all humankind.

"There are a lot of possibilities where we could learn a lot from each other," he added.

A representative of the Danish Minister for the Environment urged international collaboration in sustainable development, as "our climate is becoming more unstable, and people are getting worried".

"Collaboration across borders is essential for the change we need," he said in his opening remarks. "In China, Denmark and in many other parts of the world, there are now green policies in place with a strong focus on the circular economy, like China's 14th Five-Year Plan with circularity and minimizing waste," he added.

China has been cooperating with Denmark in water protection for over a decade. In 2010, China and Denmark signed an agreement on cooperation in protecting water resources in Beijing. Copenhagen and Beijing have also become sister cities in 2012.

Chen Ming, deputy chief economist of the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center, also calling for international cooperation in sustainable development, said learning from advanced experience and technologies from other countries could help China to achieve its carbon neutrality goal.

Yang Ran contributed to this story.