At the Unied Nations Climate Change Conference held in Bali, Indonesia on December 3-14, 2007, China was highly commended by all parties concerned for its viable and efficacious measures to cope with global climate change. This is by no means fortuitous, as it has worked hard for a long period of time to turn the related pressures into an impetus.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee explicitly set forth an Outlook on Scientific Development in October 2003, which underscores to orientate towards the human beings, to nurture the outlook on an all-round, coordinating and sustainable growth, and to spur the comprehensive development of economic society and human beings.
On June 30, 2005, Premier Wen Jiabao raised a comprehensive blueprint on the development of a thrift-type society. This represents an overall, systematic program to build up such a society in aspects from the long-term goal and short-term, concrete arrangements to the institution of coordinating, ensuring mechanisms.
China's large-scale tree-planting drive has won growing recognition with its apparent splendid achievements. Despite a net shrinkage of forest coverage in Asia in the 1990s, notes an assessment report released by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on global forest resources, there was a net increase with the region's forest coverage between 2000 and 2005, attributing chiefly to a massive tree-planting drive launched in China. To date, the country's forest coverage has reached 175 million hectares, forcing up the green space to 18.21 percent compared with merely 12 percent in 1981.
Moreover, China pledged to cut energy consumption per unit GDP (gross domestic product) by 20 percent and pollution emission by 10 percent in the 11th five-year program period from 2006 to 2010, the two major objectives approved by the Chinese National People's Congress, or China's legislative body, on March 2006.
All the above mentioned evidences indicate the international community has affirmed the efforts China made in this regard and, in fact, the country had already gone into action before the international community reached ample consensuses on the subject.
Furthermore, it is anticipated that China is expected to withstand more intensified pressures from the global climate change and has to stand it for a long time to come in the wake of its rapid economic growth. Such pressure, however, can be translated into an impetus if they are dealt with properly.
In another development, Japan felt dismal and became the focus of global gaze during the first oil crisis erupted in 1973, when more than 90 percent of its fuel had to rely on imports. Japanese firms, however, charged ahead courageously in defiance of numerous difficulties, and turned to develop all sorts of fuel-saving technologies. As a result, Japan has made itself a nation with the highest fuel use rate globally.
As how to translate immense pressure into an impetus, the policy principles the Chinese central authorities have worked out definitely show the way forward. In my own view, the following points are particularly vital and crucial:
First is to transform the mode of production growth. China's GDP made up 5.5 percent of the overall, global GDP in 2006, whereas the country's fuel consumption constitutes 15 percent of the total consumption globally in the year. This implies that China still has a great potential to urther transform economic growth mode. Hence, it is now high time to make changes as the country's gross economic growth mode has caused a great waste of fuel and a serious environment pollution.
Second is to develop the clean fuel and low-carbon energy. Moves have commenced around China but this is only the beginning, as there is still a vast development space and, third, the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing poses a mega-event for China as well as a global event. China has promised its Beijing Olympic Games to be the “Green Olympics”, which has a great deal of work for Chinese to accomplish since its contents are so rich, varied and all-inclusive. And finally, people are to respond to or implement fully the call the central authorities had issued, namely, to build a thrift and eco-friendly society.
China, still a developing nation today, is currently not affluent in any sense despite some successes it has attained. Nevertheless, there is much waste and extravagance. Just imagine how much costly, tasty food, cuisines and delicacies of every kind in restaurants are thrown away nationwide yearly, and what a huge resources waste and a grave pollution caused to the environment!
In a nutshell, the crux of matter in turning pressure into an impetus lies in actions; if positive and substantial actions are taken, they'll do good to China and the rest of the world as well.
By Wu Jianmin, president of China's Foreign Affairs University and translated by People's Daily Online
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