Environment has been completely integrated into discussions as political and business leaders talk about new visions for economic growth at the annual Davos meeting, Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken said on Friday.

Auken told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that environmental protection is becoming a hot topic at Davos because it is becoming part of the economy.

"I'm really optimistic after being here, (finding out) that the businesses leaders and the heads of state have understood that we need to find a new growth model where environment is much more integrated, and the social side also," she said.

She said that people will see large benefits for companies which are good at using non-polluting resources becoming more competitive, so the economic growth and environmental protection will be more balanced in the future.

"To find new ways of using the resources more intelligently will also create a lot of new jobs. That's where I've put some of my hope," she said.

She stressed that it also needs efforts of politicians with courage and business leaders that live up to their responsibility.

Auken said the largest obstacle preventing the world from turning green is "if we think there is only one crisis, the economic crisis, and focus all our energy on that."

"We need to understand there are several crisis," she said, pointing to the climate change.

Auken, who also heads the EU-China Water Platform, launched in March 2012 as a bilateral policy initiative to improve dialogue, joint research and private sector cooperation for better management of water resources, said the two sides are going to move onto three concrete projects.

"We are going to focus on protecting ground water, the waste water treatment and water efficiency," she said.

She said China is doing a great job in water protection in terms of the amount of money invested.

"I think China is taking the job very serious and we want to contribute and also to be part of the solution if we can," she said.

Auken said the EU and China have a good cooperation already in energy, and can also cooperate to tackle the air pollution.

"We have a lot of technologies for automobiles, but also for industry and for large factories where you can clean the air, so we want to help if we can," she said. Endi

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