世界环境日：重启人类与自然的关系

6月5日是世界环境日，今年的全球主题是“生态系统恢复”，致力于“重启我们与自然的关系”。

自1974年以来，全球每年的6月5日举办世界环境日活动。各国政府、企业和公民都参与行动，共同致力于解决日益紧迫的资源环境问题。

Saturday coincides with the World Environment Day, which aims to encourage worldwide awareness and action to protect the environment.

长期以来，人类一直在过度开发、破坏地球的生态系统：

• 每三秒钟，世界就会失去一个足球场那么大面积的森林；

• 每年，有超过470万公顷（面积比丹麦还大）的森林流失；

• 在上个世纪，人类摧毁了世界一半的湿地；

• 即使全球成功将升温幅度控制在1.5°C以内，也已经失去了多达50％的珊瑚礁——到2050年，这一数字将达90％……

Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, with over 4.7 million hectares – an area larger than Denmark – lost annually, equivalent to one football pitch every three seconds, according to the report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Over half of the world's wetlands have disappeared in the last century.

The UN Decade

在这个世界环境日，联合国环境规划署拉开“联合国生态系统恢复十年”（2021-2030）倡议的序幕，该倡议的全球使命是恢复数十亿公顷的生态系统，从森林到农田，从山峰到深海。生态系统修复意味着预防、制止并逆转对生态系统的破坏——从开发自然到治愈自然。

十年听起来是一段漫长的时间，但这其实是一次冲刺。

With this year's theme of "Ecosystem Restoration," the United Nations (UN) kicked off the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (the UN Decade) on the day, to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems all around the world.

Led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Decade runs from 2021 to 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change, said the UN.

"An ecosystem comprises all the living organisms and the interactions among them and with their surroundings in a given place," the UN's Ecosystem Restoration Playbook read. "They exist at all scales, from a grain of soil to the entire planet, and include forests, rivers, wetlands, grasslands, estuaries and coral reefs. Cities and farmlands contain important human-modified ecosystems."

It provides "priceless benefits" for humans including a stable climate and breathable air, supplies of water, food and materials of all kinds, and protection from disaster and disease.

联合国环境署与粮农组织共同发布的题为《成为修复一代：为人类、自然和气候修复生态系统》的报告指出，生态环境的退化已经影响到约32亿人的福祉——这相当于世界总人口的40%。每一年，人们丧失的生态系统服务价值，比全球经济产出总量的10%还要多。

报告显示，人类对自然的索取是自然可持续状态下能够供给的1.6倍。这意味着环境保护工作本身还不足以防止大规模的生态系统崩溃和生物多样性丧失。预计到2030年，全球陆地系统恢复的成本每年将高达2000亿美元。但报告同时强调，投入生态恢复的每1美金都将创造价值30美金的经济效益。

However, humans are consuming natural resources equivalent to 1.6 times the nature can provide sustainably, alarmed a report by the UNEP and FAO released ahead of the World Environment Day.

The report, titled "Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate," said ecosystems are in urgent need of restoration. Some of the world's most poorest and marginalized groups live on nearly 2 billion hectares of degraded land.

Facing the triple threat of climate change, natural degradation and pollution, it calls to restore at least 1 billion hectares of degraded land to protect falling biodiversity and face off food insecurity.

"We are ravaging the very ecosystems that underpin our societies," the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday. "Our degradation of the natural world is destroying the very food, water and resources needed to survive, and already undermining the well-being of 3.2 billion people – or 40 percent of humanity."

Fortunately, the Earth is resilient and "we still have time to reverse the damage we have done," the UN chief added.

He called the next 10 years humans' "final chance" to avert a climate catastrophe, reverse the deadly tide of pollution and end species loss.

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 中国的绿色答卷  

今年世界环境日，中国的主题是“人与自然和谐共生”。该主题旨在进一步唤醒全社会生物多样性保护的意识，牢固树立尊重自然、顺应自然、保护自然的理念，建设人与自然和谐共生的美丽家园。

据生态环境部消息，中国2020年碳排放强度比2015年下降了18.8%，非化石能源占能源消费的比重达到15.9%，都超额完成了中国向国际社会承诺的2020年目标。

The country's Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Friday that China's carbon emission intensity in 2020 fell by 18.8 percent compared with 2015, overfulfilling the official target for 18 percent during the five-year period. Its proportion of non-fossil energy in energy consumption reached 15.9 percent. Both the numbers exceed China's 2020 targets it promised to the international community.

2020年9月，中国向世界做出庄重承诺，将力争在2030年前实现碳达峰、2060年前实现碳中和。而在“十四五”规划和2035年远景目标纲要中，广泛形成绿色生产生活方式、碳排放达峰后稳中有降也成为重要内容。

中国实现碳减排，需大力发展风能、太阳能等新能源，调整能源结构。但风和光等能源形式飘忽不定，发出的电既难存储、也缺乏稳定性，甚至被戏称为“垃圾电”。要迈过这个门槛，还需要新技术的突破。

In September 2020, China made a solemn commitment to the world that it aims to have carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

To achieve carbon emission reduction, develop new sources of energy, such as wind and solar energies, and adjust the energy structure are of the top priorities.

An aerial view of Fengning pumped storage power station in north China's Hebei Province, June 26, 2020. /CFP

作为成功的案例之一，河北丰宁抽水蓄能电站就很好地解决了新能源电能存不住的问题。

此前，世界上装机容量最大的抽水蓄能电站——河北丰宁抽水蓄能电站顺利完成了首台机组转子的吊装作业。这台机组与普通水电站机组相比有一个明显区别，就是可以根据任务需要，选择正向或者反向转动。这是由抽水蓄能电站的设计初衷所决定的。

One of China's demonstrations is the Fengning pumped storage power station under construction in north China's Hebei Province, which is the world's largest power station of its kind.

丰宁抽水蓄能电站临近河北省张北地区的新能源基地，风能和太阳能资源丰沛，电站总装机容量360万千瓦，年设计发电量66.12亿千瓦时。它实现了电能与太阳能、风能以及水的势能之间的无缝切换，无污染，损耗小。作为2022年北京冬奥会电力保障项目，电站的首台机组将于今年年底正式投入运营。

With a total installed capacity of 3.6 million kilowatts, the power station has an annual designed generating capacity of 6.612 billion kilowatt-hours. It features a seamless switch between electric energy, solar energy, wind energy, and water potential energy, with no pollution and little loss.

As a power guarantee project for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the first unit will be put into operation by the end of this year.

丰宁抽水蓄能电站副总经理吴培枝表示，电站在张北柔性直流电网中起到了调节器的作用，每年可以节约燃煤48万吨，减少二氧化碳排放120万吨。它能够助力2022年北京冬奥会成为史上100%使用绿色电力的一场奥运会。

The station can help "save 480,000 tonnes of coal and reduce 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year," Wu Peizhi, vice-general manager of the power station, told CMG. "It will help make the Olympics a 100-percent green one ever in history."

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