HAIKOU - A roundtable themed "Empowering Hainan's Beauty through the Blue Economy" was held on Thursday in Haikou, the capital of China's island province of Hainan.

More than 200 participants from home and abroad attended the forum, including diplomats, government officials and experts. It was hosted by the secretariat of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Participants discussed such topics as a sustainable blue economy to support China's dual carbon goals, challenges to and innovations in the construction of coastal cities with climate resilience, and protecting marine biodiversity.

China has committed to the dual carbon goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of ecology and environment, said that as a free trade port, a national pilot zone for ecological civilization and a national low-carbon pilot province, Hainan has been balancing economic development and environmental protection, leading nationwide in a number of ecological and environmental indicators.

The ministry will continue to support Hainan to accelerate its green and low-carbon transformation, improve the quality of its ecological environment, and work to build a green and low-carbon free trade port with first-class ecology, Zhao said.