CHINA WATCH: China is committed to greener development

China is refashioning the environmental narrative to realize its Chinese Dream. The message is gradually sinking in for those who pay attention. China is serious about adopting a more ecologically sensitive development path. Premier Li Keqiang made it clear at the annual session of the National People’s Congress that environmental protection ranks alongside poverty alleviation and development in the nation’s policy priorities. The message cannot be clearer about the importance of pollution reduction, ecosystems revival, waste management, wise use of natural resources and so on.

The emphasis is on the word “development”. What needs to be better understood is that policies going forward are not just environmentally more conscious, but China is trying to beat down a path to growth and development that will lead to achieving a new end-game of “ecological civilization”. Chinese leaders have known for a while that the country’s security in terms of food, water, ecosystem functions, energy and climate has been greatly compromised. They accept it is their responsibility to reverse the degradation while continuing to develop.

China bought into “sustainable development”, which has been the international reference concept arising out of the famous UN World Commission on Environment and Development Report published in 1987, in which sustainable development was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Significantly, the report also highlighted two key perspectives: First, the essential needs of the poor should be the overriding priority for governments; and second, the report recognized that there are limitations to not only what technology could do at any one time, but also that it takes time to change how society is organized. In other words, practicing sustainable development is a long-term endeavor, and it would be transformational for society as a whole.

Since the 1980s, China’s leadership has made poverty reduction its overarching priority. To paraphrase Deng Xiaoping – poverty is not socialism. China has gone a long way in the past three decades to meet the basic needs of the people, perhaps more than any developing country has done during the same period. By 2020, the government believes China will have pulled most of its 1.3 billion population out of poverty and that many will enjoy middle-class status.

Industrialization from the ’80s created jobs, improved China’s technical and production capabilities, and provided significant financial returns. There were many bumps along the way, including devastation of the environment. With China becoming the “factory for the world” in producing all sorts of industrial and consumer goods by the ’90s, it also became a polluter of massive scale. Moreover, rapid urbanization hollowed out rural areas and affected family cohesion, as millions of workers poured into cities to find higher-paying jobs.

Thus, repairing the damage to the environment, investing in technology to help solve problems, and bringing society along to adapt to such fast-paced change became the next stage of achieving sustainable development. Over the years, thought leaders at the nation’s policy institutions have assessed and reflected on China’s huge resource and environmental footprint in its breakneck-speed industrialization. They concluded China’s ecological capacities had been exceeded and that urgent remedial actions were needed. Chinese policy advisers recommended to leaders to create and expedite the transition to a green economy and society.

Along the way, Chinese policymakers learned many hard lessons. They looked back at challenges and mistakes, and they looked forward. In 2007, the term “ecological civilization” crept into official thinking. Since then, experts have been working on a sustainable development pathway and strategy that suits China’s own national conditions, the outcome of which is now referred to as the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

China’s concept of rejuvenation includes related elements – being politically stable, socially cohesive, economically sound, militarily strong, environmentally clean and internationally respected.

A clean and healthy environment is essential to meet the domestic needs of the people, and to gain international respect. China cannot be seen to have rejuvenated both at home and abroad if the environmental crisis is not effectively addressed. Thus, cleaning up the environment is a political and social necessity.

There is also an economic imperative. China wants faster solutions, which means it needs to develop new technology and better management methods to develop sustainably. Investments in education and innovation have been critical to producing talent at home. Being increasingly active on the international stage has also enabled China to gain knowledge.

Its changing role in climate change provides many insights. China did its own homework on the science and the nation’s vulnerabilities to global warming. While it recognized its rising carbon emissions contribution, it also demanded through the UN-led process for developing economies to have the space to grow. Yet it was prepared to make transformational commitments to be much more low-carbon in how it generates energy and operate industries. Over the past decade, China has taken on an increasingly active role at the global level to shape the climate change negotiations among countries. Today, it is an acknowledged leader in the field.

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s report at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forth 2035 as when China would have substantially achieved modernization. This has been fast-tracked by 15 years, since previously the Chinese leadership had set 2050 as the goal.

This timeline advancement means we will see not only many more new policies, but also institutional restructuring that is aimed at speeding up change with 2035 in mind. The NPC session saw numerous changes and streamlining of the government bureaucracy. The Ministry of Environmental Protection was renamed the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and will supervise the work of other ministries to deal with water-related pollution and marine environmental protection. It will also take over the climate change portfolio from the National Development and Reform Commission. At the same time, ecosystems — such as forests, grasslands, wetlands and water and marine resources — will be overseen by the new Ministry of Natural Resources.

Moreover, China’s massive and rapid cleanup should galvanize the nation to participate and contribute, as the benefits are obvious for the people, good for China as a whole and positive for Earth.

This article is written by Christine Loh, chief development strategist, Institute for the Environment, HKUST and board member of CDP Worldwide, London; and also Jade Yung who is a freelance content and creative writer. She writes about innovation in multiple disciplines, including arts and culture, wellness and sustainability.

The article has appeared on CHINA WATCH: http://www.chinawatch.cn/a/201804/23/WS5add64a1a310cc9200067d0e.html