At the China Ecological Civilization Forum on Nov 19, the Baotou bureau of ecology and environment was honored as the third "Advanced Collective of China Ecological Civilization" by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the only collective in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region to be commended.

The title is a major government-bestowed honor in the field of ecological civilization construction approved by the CPC Central Committee in 2014 and granted every three years.

Baotou is among the first group of national key industrial cities, national key ecological functional areas and biodiversity priority protection areas.

In recent years, Baotou has become a leader in implementing ultra-low emission transformation in the iron and steel industry in the autonomous region. All non-ferrous metal, cement and other industries have met the special emission limit standards and all coal-fired units in the power industry have achieved ultra-low emissions.

The city has continued to promote water pollution prevention and control and watershed management in the Yellow River basin, and has been approved as a national demonstration city for the treatment of black and odorous water bodies and a national water-saving city.

Additionally, the city has become a national leader in carrying out the pilot construction of "zero-waste city", and build the first industrial solid waste online monitoring platform in the autonomous region.

Starting this year, the bureau has been actively promoting the implementation of 92 governance projects with a total investment of 6.4 billion yuan ($893.7 million) to solve environmental problems of utmost concern to residents.