Chinese enterprises join in Rio+20 Earth Summit

Twenty-one private enterprises from China will join in China Going Green Dialogues as a part of the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, that will come in June in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

The Chinese enterprises - including real estate giants such as Vanke and Vantone, Esquel Group from the textile industry in Hong Kong, and the community supported organic farm Little Donkey in Beijing - were selected by the SEE Foundation, Shan Shui Conservation Center and Greenovation Hub, all active environmental NGOs in China.

Hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme, the China Going Green Dialogues are a series of events that will answer the call for a global revolution toward green and sustainable development models. The events are expected to fuel substantive breakthroughs in supply chain management, greenhouse gas quantification, eco-friendly technology and clean manufacturing.

At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders and thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups will come together to make plans to reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection with the aim of securing a livable future on the ever more crowded planet.

Representatives from the UN and international and Chinese NGOs will join some of China's key enterprise leaders in a number of forums on June 17 and 18 at Rio+20.

Discussions will offer a view on the present and future state of green economies in China.

Sun Shan, executive director of Shan Shui Conservation Center, said: "The growth of China's green economies has just started. We hope Rio+20 will offer the international community a window into how China is taking action from the ground up."

Simultaneously, the events will profile the diversity of Chinese grassroots organizations in their 20 years of development, as well as the innovative green practices that are emerging out of China's economic and social growth.

An increasing number of companies are taking interest in Rio+20 and looking for ways to deliver their commitment to help China go green. Rio+20 will present an opportunity for Chinese businesses and entrepreneurs to exchange experiences with peers from around the world, to share expectations of and a mutual faith towards the future of green economies.

Taking the theme "Green Economy", Rio+20 aims to hasten a global revolution in economic development. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called it "one of the most important conferences in the history of the United Nations".

The first UN Conference on Environment and Development held in 1992 in Rio - from there, the name Rio+20 - made great strides in initiating dialogue on how to tackle the degradation of the environment. It was at that conference that the concept "sustainable development" was proposed.

In 1992, China sent a government delegation to participate in the conference. Now Chinese NGOs will represent the new face of the country at Rio+20, which will be the first global summit on sustainable development attended by Chinese entrepreneurs.

In addition, China's rapidly growing philanthropic sector and non-public funding foundations are bringing more possibilities for Chinese NGOs to engage in environmental issues and expand their partnership with the corporate sector.

"Our purpose is not only to learn, but also to give something back, to step onto this global stage at Rio and carry home, back to China, a commitment," said Feng Lun, chairman of Vantone, also chairman of SEE Foundation, pledging that the foundation would, in next five years, help 500 environmental NGOs with no less than 500 million yuan ($78.8 million).