The International Olympic Committee held a seminar on sports and environment focusing on the relations between sustainable development and sports and between the Olympic Games and environmental protection.

Environmental and sports experts from the IOC, the Environmental Program of the United Nations as well as from Japan, Spain and China attended the seminar.

Pal Schmitt, the chairman of the IOC Sport and Environment Commission said at the seminar that IOC hopes to raise the environmental awareness of the people and attain global sustainable development through sponsoring such seminars.

He said that the Beijing Olympics is the first ever one that is required to be held in light of sustainable development as stated in Agenda 21. Though Beijing has many hard issues in environmental protection like all the metropolitans in the world, the efforts Beijing has made to honor its promise of a green Olympiad have convinced people that the Beijing Olympiad will leave a valuable heritage to China and the world.

The Sydney Olympics was the best ever Olympiad in environmental protection, though there was still something to be regretted. The IOC hopes that Beijing will learn from their lessons in its efforts to organize the 2008 Olympiad and honor its promise of a green Olympics

Wang Wei, secretary-general of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, said that ever since the very beginning of bidding, Beijing has explicitly proposed the idea of a green Olympiad. The international community pins much hope on Beijing that it will leave a unique heritage to the world and sports. The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee believes that environmental protection and improvement will be part and parcel of this heritage. He said that the city will learn from other Olympic cities their experiences in environmental protection and, in light of its reality, make eco-environmental protection as an important part of the organizing work.

(www.cenews.com.cn November 11, 2002)