Today (Tuesday 17 September) the UK’s Department for International Trade and the British Embassy Beijing held National Day at the UK Garden and Pavilion at the Beijing Expo 2019.
British Ambassador to China Barbara Woodward opened the day, launching the Green is GREAT campaign. The launch is the latest commitment made by the government to promote climate change initiatives across the world. It follows the news that Britain will host the UN’s climate change conference, COP26, in Glasgow in December 2020.
The campaign will focus on three opportunities for the UK and China to work together to achieve more sustainable growth:
- Raising the Green Finance needed to sustain levels of investment in green technologies and infrastructure
- Developing innovative technologies and delivering projects in renewables and electric vehicles
- Forming new UK-China partnerships in business, research and policy to tackle the challenge of marine plastic pollution
The first phase of the campaign consists of over 40 UK-China events in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Wuhan and Hefei.
Secretary of State for International Trade, Elizabeth Truss said:
I’m proud to see the launch of the Green is GREAT campaign at the Beijing Expo during our National Day celebrations. This Expo has offered us a chance to show our commitment to sustainability as well as our strong trade relationship with China.
We’ve already hit 830,000 visitors on site, an incredible achievement and a great acknowledgement of our horticultural expertise, and the events and businesses that have represented the UK at the Expo.
To demonstrate the commitment of UK business to sustainable development at the Expo, Jaguar exhibited their first all-electric five-seater sports car, British Airways demonstrated the future of sustainable flights and Pearson hosted a STEM workshop with students to design and build a mini green house and learn about the impact of climate change.
Barbara Woodward, British Ambassador to China said:
On our National Day at the Beijing Expo, I’m delighted to launch Green is GREAT, a programme of 40 events in 10 Chinese cities to spur action to clean our rivers and lakes, accelerate switches to low carbon energy and provide green finance.
Our garden at the Expo celebrates Britain’s vibrant horticultural heritage, and is an example of how we can grow sustainably and protect our planet.
Come and visit!
During the day thousands of visitors visited exhibits on clean energy as well as UK culture, heritage and creativity. These included a viewing of David Attenborough’s Blue Planet documentary, a sustainable British sparkling wine tasting, and stories of some of the UK’s most iconic animated characters such as Peter Rabbit and Paddington Bear.
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