The nine Danish companies Novozymes, Danfoss, FLS Airtech, Gronmij, AVK, Topsoe, Metso, Hasle Refractories and GEA Engineering were on an environmental protection trip to the Jiangsu province in China from the 21st to 22nd of November in order to promote Danish competences within waste incineration, air pollution and industry water.
China needs knowledge – could be Danish
Jiangsu is the second wealthiest province in China but there are severe environmental challenges in the province. The Jiangsu Provincial Government and Party Commission wants to take action on this and about 3.4% of the GDP equalling about 600 billion renminbi will be channelled into environmental investments such as water and atmospheric emissions of major pollutants, strengthened water pollution control, governance of industrial emissions and general ecological and environmental protection.
Following up on agreements
As recognition of the importance of a strengthened environmental cooperation between China and Denmark, The Danish Ministry of the Environment and the Jiangsu Environmental Protection Department (EPD) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2010. As a follow up on the MoU, the Trade Council in China and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) in cooperation with the Department of Jiangsu Environmental Protection arranged the ‘Denmark-Jiangsu Environmental Protection Fact Finding Trip and Seminar’.
On Wednesday 21st November the trip started with a visit to Jiangsu Environmental Protection Monitoring Centre followed by a visit to Nanjing Jiangxinzhou Waste water treatment plant and Nanjing Huaneng Jinling power plant. DEPA participated in the trip as well as The Danish ambassador to China, Friis Arne Petersen. In the evening the ambassador had a meeting with Chen Mengmeng, Director-General from EPD and Deputy Director-General, Yu Hongxia, also from EPD.
A potential for further cooperation
On Thursday 22nd November a seminar was held. The focus was on the three roundtable themes: ‘Waste incineration in Jiangsu’, ‘Air pollution monitoring and control of power plants’ and ‘Industrial waste water usage efficiency’ took place, which DEPA moderated. Ambassador Petersen opened the day:
“Against the backdrop of globalisation, we in Denmark and you here in Jiangsu face many of the same challenges – energy security, global warming, deteriorating environment and scarcity of water. This gives good reason to listen to one another and learn from each other’s experiences. But, maybe more importantly, there also offers a huge potential for increased cooperation between countries – especially within energy and environment”, he said.
The trip was an ideal platform for Danish companies to gain insights in Jiangsu’s environmental policies and market trends and the trip enabled networking between Danish companies and decision makers from the Jiangsu government and industrial key-stakeholders.
