‘China has formed a China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), which is composed of Chinese and foreign celebrities and provides advisory services on environment and development issues in China. This effort is reflective of Chinese government’s sincerity and determination in response to the issues,’ said the former prime minister of the State Council of China, Li Peng, when addressing the Summit of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

As a senior international advisory body to the Chinese government, CCICED has been in operation for fifteen years since its formation on April 19th, 1992. During the past one and a half decades, CCICED has been dedicated to policy studies in the fields of environment and development in China, providing recommendations, intelligence and experiences to the government, which has been successful in promoting the sustainable development of the Chinese economy, society and environment.

1. Review of Environment & Development in China

1.1 International Background of Combined Opportunities & Challenges

In the previous fifteen years, China’s remarkable advances in environment and development, along with the extraordinary and effective research achievements and policy recommendations of CCICED, are unexceptionally associated with the international background.

Since 1992, the international and political communities have penetrated the fact that human society is confronted with critical environmental risks and development challenges, who have adopted a series of significant efforts at the international level with their admirable commitment.

In June 1992, the United National (UN) held the Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The delegation of the Chinese government, led by Song Jian, member of the Chinese State Council, attended the conference, where Song delivered a speech titled the Basic Principles on Establishing New Global Partnership, which was commonly recognized at the conference. Li Peng, former Chinese prime minister, addressed the Summit of the Conference on invitation, and raised five propositions in response to the world environment and development issues, which were attended by the Conference and praised by the international community. This Conference led to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which stresses that: human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development; environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it; and reducing and eliminating unsustainable patterns of production and consumption are the basis of sustainable development. The Conference called attention to sustainable development that human society must adopt, and became a cornerstone in the history of human sustainable development.

In September 2000 at the dawn of the new millennium, heads of state and government from all over the world gathered at the UN Headquarters in New York to sign the United Nations Millennium Declaration. As is stated in the Declaration, prudence must be shown in the management of all living species and natural resources, in accordance with the precepts of sustainable development; Only in this way can the immeasurable riches provided to us by nature be preserved and passed on to our descendants; Responsibility for managing worldwide economic and social development, and the costs and benefits in response to globalization must be evenly distributed.

In September 2002, heads of state from countries worldwide gathered in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The former prime minister of Chinese State Council, Zhu Rongji, attended the summit and gave a speech titled Taking the Road of Sustainable Development Unswervingly. Prime Minister Zhu pointed out in the speech: in the past ten years since the issuing of the Rio Declaration, the international community and the governments of countries have taken significant efforts in promoting environment and development, and regional and mutual partnerships on environment and development continue to further; however, the global trend of environment deterioration has not been turned fundamentally, and with the globalization of world economy, the gap between the North and the South will continue to extend. In response, Zhu posed the five propositions regarding the adoption of sustainable development, which were greatly recognized and praised by the summit. The Declaration on Sustainable Development issued at the summit deepened the human understanding of sustainable development, recognized environmental protection, economic development and social progress as the three headstones for sustainable development, and that environmental protection is a shared responsibility of all governments.

Since the 1990s, the international community has developed a number of international environment treaties and agreements, aiming to protect the environment and promote sustainable development.

When established in the mid-1990s, the World Trade Organization (WTO) explicitly included promotion of global trade, environment and sustainable development in its missions.

These monumental declarations, treaties and agreements made by the international community with respect to environment and development have been a potent drive for global economic and social development.

In the aspect of economic development, the global economic aggregate has continued to grow. Between 1990 and 2004, the growth in the economic aggregates of the medium- and higher-income countries accumulated 91% and 68%, respectively; their per capita GNI increased by 89% and 44% accumulatively during the same period; and the world trade volume increased from 6970.7 billion USD to 18581.9 billion USD, an rise of 1.67 times.

In the field of social development, the world population grew from 5.25 billion to 6.27 billion over this period, and the average life span increased from 65.3 years to 66.8 years. The rate of urbanization climbed from 43.4% to 48.7%.

In the field of environment, the international community made more than 30 international environment treaties and defined the international partnerships for sharing the responsibility to protect the global environment, in which progress was made. However, the overall situation of the global environment remained reasons for concern, with certain severe problems turning increasingly dejected.

One problem is that environmental pollution remains serious. According to the 2001 data provided by the World Bank, many developing countries have their SO2 and suspended particle matters in urban atmosphere fail to meet the standards for air quality provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are posing great threats to the environment and to population health, the ozone layer depleting substances (ODS) are not fully controlled, and the ozone hole over the South Pole had reached 280 million km2 by 2000. The data issued by the UN Environment Program (ENEP) in 2000 indicate that the average ozone loss is 6% in the mid-latitude region of the Northern Hemisphere during winter and spring, while the annual loss is 5% in the mid-latitude region of the Southern Hemisphere.

Another problem is the unprecedented ecologic crisis the human race is faced with. Forests around the world continue to disappear at a rate of 0.2% each year, which is as high as 0.8% in the lower-income countries where the disappearing forests are 79% of the world total. As UNEP estimates, 2/3 of the global usable land is affected by deterioration, leading to lower productivity. And deterioration is occurring to 70% of the world’s arid land. The data from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) show that some 24% of mammals (1130 types) and 12% of birds (1183 types) are at the brink of extinction worldwide.

The third problem rests with the increasing release of green-house gases, which tend to cause the globe to warm up. The current atmospheric CO2 concentration is about 370ppm. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2001 that the 1990s ‘might well’ have been the warmest decade since the recording was started in 1861, and the year of 1998 was the warmest ever recorded.

1.2 Environment & Development in China: Achievements & Progress

The above international declarations, treaties and agreements have offered new ideas, conclusions and measures regarding environment and development. They provide China with fresh opportunities and energy for development, facilitate China’s active response to globalization, and promote sustainable development in this country. Yet, the costs are unavoidably raised when China has to develop as having to enforce the many responsibilities and obligations provided. Therefore, the international background means both opportunities and challenges for Chinese environment and development.

1.2.1 Major Decisions & Efforts

Faced with the opportunities and challenges, through thorough consideration reflection, the high-level decision makers of the country decided to adopt a series of major policies and measures that meet the Chinese national conditions and the requirements of sustainable development, driving forward the harmonious progress of economy, society and environment actively and steadily.

1.2.1.1 In the summer of 1992, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Ten Responses to Environment and Development, where ‘implementing the strategy of sustainable development and transforming the traditional development pattern’ were on top of the list;

1.2.1.2 In the autumn of 1992, the 14th Congress of the Communist Party of China decided that China was to adopt a socialist market economy and included environmental protection in the ten tasks for the 1990s reforms and construction, which was the first time when market economy and environmental protection made their appearance in the political report of the Chinese Communist Party;

1.2.1.3 In the spring of 1994, China made the world’s first national 21st Century Agenda, announcing the government’s commitment to implementing the Rio Declaration as well as its plan of action and measures for sustainable development;

1.2.1.4 Beginning in the mid-1990s, China has launched fundamental transformations in environment and development: one is the transformation from planned economy to market economy, and the other is from the extensive economic growth mode to the intensive one;

1.2.1.5 In 1996 and 2005, the State Council issued the Decisions on Several Problems in Environmental Protection and the Decisions on Practicing Scientific Development Ideas and Strengthening Environmental Protection. The former identified the goals of ‘1 control and 2 reachings’ for the country (to control total pollution discharge, and discharged pollutants reaching relevant standards and environment quality in key cities reaching relevant standards), and shut down the so-called ‘15 small’ enterprises (15 types of enterprises with high recourse consumption, serious pollution, and unmet industrial policy requirements, such as small coal mines, small coking plants and small paper mills). The latter proposed the objectives for drinking water protection and water and air pollution controls, along with the measures to contain ecologic environment deterioration and strengthen rural environmental protection;

1.2.1.6 In promoting the sustainable development of environment and trade, China began its fifteen-year negotiations with the bodies of the previous General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and later WTO in 1986, and succeeded in joining WTO at the end of 2001. This effort quickened China’s pace to be integrated into economic globalization.

Since 1992, China has been firm with its implementation of sustainable development strategy and carried out the policy of open, harmonious and peaceful development. Guided by scientific development ideas, China has taken the path of novel industrialization to build a relatively well-off, resource-saving and environment-friendly society. Efforts have been made to improve the scientific, democratic, comprehensive decision-making mechanisms for environment and development, and environmental protection has been elevated from a ‘marginal’ status to a strategic position in development decision-making.

In the magnificent decisions and efforts China has made contains the determination, political will and vision that the Chinese high-level decision-makers have in mind when responding to the environment and development challenges thoughtfully and actively, which provide Chinese environment and development with scientific policy guidance and effective mechanism backing.

1.2.2 Historical Achievements in Economic Development

The historical achievements in Chinese economic development include:

a. Thoroughly restructured economic system

The economic system with the public ownership as the main body and diversified ownerships developing in common has been established in China. Thus far, the stockholding system has been instituted in more than 50% of the state-owned enterprises; the economy of non-public ownership contributes 1/3 of the Chinese GDP and generates 1/5 of new employments; and prices are decided by market for 95% of the total volume of retail sales of social consumption products, along with 96% of the total purchase of agricultural and other products and 88% of the total sales of means of production;

b. Breakthroughs in total volume of economy and per capita national income

In 2000, Chinese GDP first reached 1000 billion USD, followed by the second breakthrough in 2005 when GDP surpassed 2000 billion USD. The per capita national income exceeded 1000 USD for the first time in 2003 and continued to climb to 1743 USD in 2005. See Table 1.

Table 1 Increases in GDP and Per Capita National Income in China

c. Accelerated process of industrialization

Since 1992, large changes have been taking place in the Chinese industrial structure. Of the Chinese GDP, the share generated by the primary industry has fallen from 22% to 13% by a decreasing rate of 40%. The secondary industry has risen from 44% to 53% by an increasing rate of 20%. See Table 2.

Table 2 Three Changes in Industrial Composition in China

d. Steady increases in industrial and agricultural production, ending the history of market shortage

During the past fifteen years, the major industrial and agricultural production has increased sizably, as has provided the material assurance needed for improving people’s lives and laid the material foundation for extended production and social development. See Table 3.

Table 3 Changes in Production of Major Industrial and Agricultural Products in China

e. Increased international trade and foreign exchange reserve, a new situation of international economic cooperation shaped

The 1992 total import-export volume was 165.5 billion USD, which reached 1422.1 billion USD in 2005, an increase of 8.5 times. Over the same period, the number of trade partners increased from some 100 to over 220 countries and regions. More than 180 countries and regions started to invest in China. Of the 500 largest companies in the world, more than 400 have investments in China. Over this period, the actually utilized foreign investment rose from 19.2 billion USD to 64 billion USD, an increase of 2.3 times.

With its steadily accumulated foreign exchange reserve of appropriate size, Chinese government has enhanced its ability of international financing and financial risk resistance. Starting with merely 0.17 billion USD in 1978, through the 19.4 billion USD in 1992, China’s foreign exchange reserve mounted to 818.9 billion USD by 2005 (See Table 4). To the 1997 Asian Crises, the Chinese government made calm response and employed macrocontrol measures, showing the world China’s ability to combat international financial crises.

Table 4    Growth in Foreign Exchange Reserve of China

The previous fifteen years has witnessed China’s remarkable achievements in social development.

a. Successful control of population growth

Since the initiation of the family planning policy, China has avoided 0.3 billion births otherwise provided the population growth had run blindly and unplanned, which is a tremendous contribution to reducing resource and environment pressures. It is evident that the Chinese people are generally supportive for the policy that has proved to be a success;

b. Problems with feeding and clothing 1.3 billion people basically solved. Moreover, more than 0.3 billion Chinese people have been elevated out of poverty;

c. Fertility rate and natural growth rate effectively reduced

The fertility rate of Chinese population was reduced from 18.24‰ in 1992 to 12.29‰ in 2004. Over the same period, the Chinese life expectancy increased from 68.55 years to 71.40 years;

d. Urban and rural per capita incomes have been largely increased and the people’s living environment well improved. See Table 5 and 6.

Table 5 Changes in Fertility Rate, Growth Rate and Life Expectancy of Chinese Population

Table 6    Changes in Living Standards of Chinese People