Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday stressed global cooperation to combat desertification, which he said is a common challenge for mankind.

Xi made the remarks in a congratulatory letter to a high-level meeting of the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which opened Monday in Ordos City in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

In the letter, Xi said land desertification is a major ecological issue affecting the existence and development of mankind, and the situation for controlling desertification remains grave despite the progress the world has achieved since the UNCCD came into effect 21 years ago.

Xi wished the conference a success. He said the conference, with the theme of “Combating Desertification for Human Well-being,” intends to develop a new strategic framework for the UNCCD, which will be significant and positive for guaranteeing global ecological security.

China will unswervingly fulfill its obligations under the UNCCD, and continue to push forward communication and cooperation with all member parties and international organizations to work for the targets set during the conference and create a better world, Xi said.

A new cooperative mechanism to combat desertification was launched on Sunday in Ordos, Inner Mongolia for countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Monique Barbut, executive secretary of UNCCD and Zhang Jianlong, minister of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) launch the Belt and Road Cooperative Mechanism to Combat Desertification in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, Sept. 10, 2017. [Photo by Han Lin/ China.org.cn]

Monique Barbut, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Zhang Jianlong, minister of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) attended the launch ceremony along with more than 300 officials and guests, which was held during the ongoing 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD from Sept. 6 -16.

The Belt and Road Cooperative Mechanism to Combat Desertification will enhance mutual trust, establish consensus and promote the cooperation among countries, to develop a strong collective power to fight desertification.

The new mechanism will have a mix of membership including countries, international organizations, NGOs and enterprises. The framework will involve a conference mechanism, information sharing, technology training and project demonstration. Member countries will discuss and decide four funding channels, make development strategies every five years, set the phased goals and tasks and evaluate the results.

Zhang said the co-building of the green Silk Road is consistent with China’s avocation and the broad consensus of countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. He noted the new mechanism is a Chinese solution to resolve challenges and difficulties, and to maintain the global ecological safety.

Zhang contended that the mechanism can enhance the communication and coordination to effectively contain the desertification and land degradation and contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development approved by the United Nations in 2015.

Barbut hoped the participating countries can find their most effective fit in the cooperation. She said the mechanism will help to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and bring forward the green development concept, technologies and investments to countries within the Belt and Road Initiative.

She stressed that the cooperative mechanism is a very important platform to share the best global anti-desertification practices, innovate the cooperation approaches among UN member countries and start a broad pragmatic cooperation to benefit people of the world.

In 2016, the SFA and UNCCD jointly issued the “Belt and Road Joint Action Initiative to Combat Desertification” to call on countries within the initiative framework to work together as many countries suffer from desertification.

Ahcene Boukhelfa, Algerian Ambassador to China; Sokhun Ty, state secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia and Daniel Calleja Crespo, head of the Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Union also attended and addressed the ceremony.

The homemade engine Changjiang-1000 that domestically developed passenger plane C919 will use is under development, reported thepaper.cn on Sept 9.

Cao Chunxiao, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and senior researcher at the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, said the engine will replace the engine purchased abroad, in a summit in Nanchang, Jiangxi province.

Currently, French engine LEAP-1C powers the country’s first large passenger aircraft.

The LEAP-1C engines and the outer-layer nacelles for the aircraft were made through CFM International, a 50-50 joint venture between Safran Aircraft Engines and General Electric.

Cao said the usage of titanium alloy in Changjiang-1000 takes up 23 percent of the weight.

It is said titanium has much lower density but similar intensity compared to steel, which can significantly reduce the engine weight.

Cao and his colleagues first discussed the idea of using titanium in aviation in 1964.

According to him, aero-engine development is the result of high technology and the symbol of the innovation and national power.

It is not yet known when Changjiang-1000 will power C919.

Five people have been detained on suspicion of dumping 300 tonnes of diseased pigs in a mountainous area of Huzhou city, eastern China’s Zhejiang province.

The city government issued a circular Monday accusing the Huzhou Industrial and Medical Waste Treatment Company of sending pigs that died of disease to a landfill rather than for cremation between 2013 and 2014.

Police investigation shows that the company, which is responsible for disposing the city’s dead pigs, has a refrigerated storage facility with a capacity of 50 tonnes. For six times, the company dumped diseased carcasses at three sites at Dayin Mountain whenever the facility was full.

Over the last week, the Huzhou government had dug out 224 tonnes of decomposed carcasses and sludge, which will be cremated.

A sample-test report by the municipal agricultural department said that no human-infecting pig diseases, such as H5 and H7 bird flu viruses and foot-and-mouth disease, had been found.

The authorities have ordered that the public security bureau, agriculture and environmental department and the local government to collectively ensure no carcasses are left in the soil. Later, local environmental service center will carry out an environment impact assessment.

The Zhejiang provincial government has sent inspectors to oversee the treatment process.

East China provinces are known for breeding pigs, and there are rules for disposing of carcasses. However, illegal dumping occasionally occurs when dealers try to save on bio-safety costs.

China has ended an emergency radiation monitoring after detecting no environmental impact from a nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The monitoring, conducted at the northeastern border areas after the DPRK nuclear test on Sept. 3, was ended at 6 p.m. Sunday, according to a statement from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP).

No abnormal results were showed after eight days of monitoring, the MEP said.

“A comprehensive assessment has concluded that this DPRK nuclear test has caused no environmental impact on China, and conditions for a termination [of the emergency monitoring] have been met,” it said.

All monitoring stations in the border areas and surrounding regions, including the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Shandong, recorded normal radiation levels as of 6 p.m. Sunday, according to the MEP.

The ministry said it would switch to routine monitoring after the emergency response ended, conducting automatic radiation monitoring and regular sampling analysis at key border areas.

Real-time radiation levels recorded at automatic monitoring stations in and near the northeastern border areas will continue to be made public to address people’s concerns, the MEP said.

The China Earthquake Administration reported that a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the DPRK at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 3 with an epicenter depth of zero km, saying that it might have been caused by explosion.

The DPRK’s Korea Central Television announced on the same day that the country had successfully detonated an H-bomb, a hydrogen bomb that can be carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile.

China’s Foreign Ministry has expressed firm opposition to and strong condemnation of the test.