China made a real impression at the 27th session of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC-27/GMEF) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya at the end of February.

The meeting was the first of its kind since the United Nations Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP19) was held in November 2012 in Doha, Qatar where China pledged to assist developing countries, especially those from Africa in reducing  harmful effects of green house gases. China's conspicuous presence at the UNEP global forum emphasizes its growing reputation as a country fully integrating environmental protection with economic development.

To strengthen the collaboration, China, represented by Shanghai, signed agreements with the UNEP on environment, green economy, wildlife protection and supporting youth engagement. Shanghai, China's second most-populous city with an estimated 24 million inhabitants, pledged to use considerable resources to sensitize the public about the UNEP's work, and to cooperate with the UNEP's youth engagement program, known as Tunza.

Tunza is a Swahili word meaning "to treat with care or affection" and under it, the UNEP develops activities for children and young people in capacity building, environmental awareness and information exchange. It calls for stronger links between youths and the environment, and aims to foster a generation of environmentally conscious citizens capable of positive action.

At Tunza's inaugural meeting, running parallel to the global environmental ministers' forum, youths from over 100 countries called on all governments to develop a new strategic program for 2015-20 to involve them in environmental conservation. They also challenged governments to introduce Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in formal education curriculums, as well as through informal learning methods, from early ages, but with a life-long-learning perspective.

The expanded collaboration between China and Tunza was signed during the Green Shanghai Art Photography Exhibition, which shared experiences and lessons from China's green development with UNEP's member states. Under the agreement, Shanghai has agreed to mobilize its youth to take part in the Tunza process, organize a Youth Green Economy exhibition, and create animations from top eight paintings submitted to the UNEP's International Children's Painting Competition to inspire youth and children to act on sustainable development.

Shanghai agreed to use large-screen displays in the city center and posters in metro stations to publicize the UNEP's prioritized themes, including wildlife protection campaigns launched this year in collaboration with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Apart from Tunza, the UNEP has had long collaborative partnership with China. Last October, the UNEP, in collaboration with Chinese authorities, established in Beijing the Global Efficient Lighting Center, founded with the Chinese National Lighting Test Center as new collaborating center for energy efficient lighting. The Global Efficient Lighting Center is designed to boost efforts by developing countries to phase out inefficient light bulbs. The center in Beijing will provide energy efficiency technologies to projects in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the South Pacific.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said almost 50 developing and emerging economies have committed to phasing out incandescent light bulbs by 2016. He estimates that over $110 billion could be saved worldwide every year through a transition to efficient lighting. He said yearly savings in electricity would be equivalent to closing over 250 large coal-fired power plants, resulting in avoided investment costs of approximately $210 billion. This would also cut CO2 emissions equivalent to more than 120 million medium-sized cars, according to Steiner.

The UNEP has also collaborated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to form International Ecosystems Management Partnership (IEMP), a joint program for promoting ecosystem management in developing countries, particularly in Africa. With the earth's ecosystems increasingly threatened by a growing human population, deforestation and transformation into agricultural and pasturelands, ecosystem management has become more important than ever.

The China-based IEMP has a core mandate to synthesize the science of ecosystem management for government decision makers. It is UNEP's first South- South cooperation to promote effective development by sharing best practices and technology among developing countries, especially those in Africa.

(Reporting from Kenya)