China's economy is the second largest in the world after that of the United States. During the past 30 years, China's economy has changed from a centrally-planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector.Some of the serious negative consequences of China's rapid industrial development has been increased pollution, smog, and degradation of natural resources.Efforts to control China's pollution problem have become a top priority of the Chinese leadership. Beginning in 2006, the Chinese government strengthened its environmental legislation and made some progress in stemming environmental deterioration.
In the second of this two-part series in Guardian Media's ongoing Cleaning Up The Mess space, YANG YOUMING, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China, tells us how environmental protection is now entrenched in state policy.In the Sanya Declaration of the third BRICS Leaders Meeting which concluded just two weeks ago, China reaffirmed its support to the development and use of renewable energy resources, as well as to the co-operation and information exchange in that field.In that declaration, China and other BRICS countries also recognised the importance of nuclear energy.
Pollution reduction is very much in the picture. China is the largest coal producing and consuming nation in the world, where 60 per cent of energy consumed is coal. Bearing this in mind, China has since 2009 steadily carried out clean coal strategy with more widely-used technology of coal liquifaction. China now has developed some of the world's most advanced clean coal technology. China is also committed to the fight against "white pollution." Since June 1, 2008, China has banned the production, retailing and free use of traditional ultrathin (0.025 mm or less) plastic shopping bags, a step that even many developed countries are yet to take. The amount of plastic bag usage that year slashed by nearly 40 billion or 66 per cent nationwide compared to one year ago.
Efforts are made to fundamentally restore the ecological environment of the good old times. China set March 12 as the National Arbor Day in 1979, and passed in 1981, a legislative resolution that requires Chinese citizens to voluntarily plant trees within their best capabilities in 1981. Since 1982, more than 20.5 billion trees have been planted by hundreds of millions of volunteers throughout the country.
China has made an indispensable contribution against the climate change around the globe by reforesting its land at an average speed of over 70 million mu (approximately 46,666 km2) annually, topping any other country in the world. China also carries out a policy of Restoring Cultivated Land to Forestry. China has the largest population yet very limited cultivated land in the world. Even so, China is determined to giving up some of the cultivated land for the sake of protecting and improving the ecological environment, especially in the western part of China.
China is still a developing country working hard to satisfy its people's expectation in terms of economic growth, yet remains firmly committed to pursue comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development by building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society.Stephen Singer, the head of energy policy for the WWF environmental group placed his high hopes on China. "We have substantive hopes in China that China will take the lead...to make low-carbon economy, the high energy efficiency economy a reality in the coming years," he said not long ago.
