China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Dow Chemical (China) Investment Company Limited (Dow) have signed a joint project document to collaborate on promoting chemical safety and emergency preparedness in the chemical industry in China.
Lijun Zhang, vice minister of MEP, said: “We face formidable, but reachable goals in China concerning safety and emergency response. The chemical industry plays a very important role in our nation’s development, and this programme will draw us closer to where we need to be; in essence, having safer places to work and live.”
Arab Hoballah, chief of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Branch of UNEP, indicated that this project will assist in building capacity in the MEP and in the chemical industry and its value chain and is line with UNEP’s Bali Strategic Plan on Technology Support and Capacity Building.
“Through this demonstration project and other relevant activities, the experience gained will be important in supporting further capacity development of local authorities and broader section of the chemical industry in China, as well as setting the basis for a National Center for Safer Production,” he said.
Neil Hawkins, vice president, Sustainability, at Dow, said: “We are excited to move forward into another multi-year project in China, our third largest market and an important centre of global transformational growth. Collaborating with partners like MEP and UNEP will make a positive and lasting impact on a wide range of people, and Chinese society as a whole. “In 2005, Dow sponsored the three-year national pilot project with the China’s State Environmental Protection Administration (now MEP).
“Dow also partnered with China’s State Administration of Work Safety to launch a national demonstration project on the safe management of hazardous chemicals promoting a better understanding and awareness among small- and medium-sized enterprises.”
