More opportunities

It's probably one of the oldest clichs that in the Chinese language, "crisis" means both danger and opportunity.

But today, nothing is truer concerning China's efforts for a greener future.

The current global economic downturn is also a great opportunity for the country to adjust its old industrial structure and morph into a low carbon society through innovation.

This is the consensus of experts from the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) at their annual meeting held recently in Beijing.

Established in 1992, CCICED, a think tank of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, collects opinions from more than 200 senior environment and development experts and officials at home and abroad.

Vice-premier Li Keqiang, who is also chairman of CCICED, told the opening ceremony that China would continue to make environmental protection a priority.

"China's central government put environmental protection in a strategic position with its 4-trillion-yuan investment package to boost domestic demand and improve the quality of life," Li said.

Increased environment protection efforts should become highlights of economic growth, Li said.

The CCICED experts also warn that China needs to be alert to the potential environmental risks in this round of massive investment. Stable economic growth should not come at a price of environmental deterioration, the experts say.

Public sectors are urged to adopt "green purchasing" in the country's infrastructure construction under the stimulus plan, say the experts.

This will not only send a strong signal that China's government is determined to beef up environmental protection along with economic development, but also stimulate the country's environmental industry.

China should also grasp the opportunity to adjust its industrial structure and speed up the development of a low carbon economy, which CCICED experts recommend be included in the country's 12th five-year plan (2011-2015).

Using more clean energy sources and adopting cleaner production processes are keys to developing a low carbon economy, so China needs to increase investment in research and development of related technologies, the CCICED experts say.

The global economic downturn, which has lead a fall in the prices of crude oil and mineral resources on the international market, is also a good opportunity for China to adjust its pricing system for these products.

CCICED's recommendations

Chinese government leaders have realized the problems of its fast industrial and developmental growth and have set some targets to reduce its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and major pollutant emissions by 10 percent by 2010.

The CCICED think tank says a gradual approach to improving the environment isn't enough to cope with the challenges caused by rapidly increasing consumption and population. Faster technological and societal innovation is needed for China to reduce its emissions to an environmental friendly level, the report said.

China is able to and needs to be a leading force in new environmental technologies due to its low production costs, strong innovation capabilities and broad market and consumption potential.

An obvious problem is that while China has developed lots of advanced environmental protection and energy efficient technologies, it lacks a management system to guide their real application. Domestic technologies haven't been fully used and many of the foreign technologies haven't been introduced into China.

The report suggests that China should largely improve its original innovation abilities rather than relying on introducing foreign technologies, then digesting and re-innovating them.

China needs to expand its investments in basic research in a bid to lay a solid foundation for innovation. And it needs to attract the best researchers across the globe through rewards and scholarships as well as intensify its support to domestic universities.

At the same time, it needs to set up a quantity of high-level national environmental research and innovation centers through joint investments by government, enterprises and universities, in an effort to connect studies with innovation and production.

China also needs more specialized projects to ensure cleaner production.

Under the management and supervision of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, China has begun such projects to control and treat water pollution with an investment of 35.7 billion yuan during 2007 to 2020. The investment includes fiscal funds, local governmental investments and enterprise funds.

The CCICED suggests similar projects to boost wind power, carbon storage, energy efficiency and clean coal technology, and to reduce auto pollution.

In addition, the CCICED suggests that central government should introduce incentives to encourage "green" government procurement of local government and state-owned enterprises, in an effort to enable enterprises with innovative technologies to increase market shares and become more competitive.

They say that government should stipulate a minimum proportion of local budgets allocated for clean technologies as well as to work out related laws and regulations.

(China Daily 11/24/2008 page5)