A Green Economy Begins to Bloom

By LAN XINZHEN

A Green Economy Begins to Bloom

By LAN XINZHEN

Opportunities and challenges await China as it tends to its still-growing green economy

Supporting the global movement to “go green” is every country’s responsibility. To show its commitment to green efforts, China recently held a fourday expo to raise environmental awareness and make a case for developing the green economy. The 2010 China International Green Industry Expo, held in Beijing on November 24-27, was co-sponsored by 12 ministries and commissions, the first time a large number of government organizations came together to host such an event.

At the expo, 85 domestic enterprises and 127 companies from 25 countries and regions displayed their green technologies and products.

During the opening ceremony, Li Keqiang, Vice Premier of the State Council, said the green economy would become a general trend and be widely accepted as China accelerates its economic transformation and as economic growth is increasingly restricted by resource and environmental factors.

China’s drive to establish a green economy is less than a decade old, but already it has made considerable progress. By the end of 2009, renewable energy had accounted for 9 percent of the total primary energy consumption in China.

But China still has a long way to go before fulfilling its commitment made at the UN Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark, last year: By 2020, China will reduce its carbon emissions per unit GDP by 40-45 percent from the 2005 level, and renewable energy will account for 15 percent of its total primary energy consumption. In addition, China faces many other problems and challenges in developing the green economy, especially its weak green technology development. It should be no surprise then that the Chinese Government has prioritized the development of the green economy.

In recent years, said Vice Minister of Environment Protection Wu Xiaoqing, the average annual growth of China’s investment in the green industry has remained at 15-20 percent. This growth will likely remain steady as the industry grows, allowing China to become the world’s biggest green market. Also, in the next fve years, China’s total environment protection investment demand will surpass 3 trillion yuan ($449.1 billion), doubling that in the past fve years.

The development plan for the green industry, jointly formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Environment Protection and some other ministries, has been approved by the State Council. The plan will provide technology, product and service support to the energy-saving, environment protection and recycling utilization industries to promote the formation and development of industrial chains within China’s green economy.

Ways to advance

At the China International Green Industry Forum concurrently held with the Green Expo, Wu said China would follow four guidelines to ensure the development of the domestic green economy.

First, China will make it easier for market players to become involved in the green economy. It will also promote legal, economic, technological and other necessary administrative measures to promote clean production and recycling practices. Eliminating backward production processes and accelerating the transformation of traditional industries into green industries will be prioritized. The already limited capacity and development space will frst be used to support environmentally friendly growth and then create a good external environment for green economy development.

Second, China will gradually improve its environmental policies and ensure the market plays a fundamental role in resource allocation. Green credit and pollution responsibility insurance will form binding mechanisms to protect the environment and help the country realize its green economy goals.

Third, China will also take steps to establish a highly effcient and modern industrial system to nurture the green industry. As attention is increasingly placed on environment protection, the environment protection industry has become one of China’s prominent sectors and a pillar industry that will lead the green economy’s development.

Fourth, China will actively promote green products and speed up the establishment of a consumption pattern conducive to saving resources and protecting the environment. It will focus on improving public awareness and mobilizing all sectors of society to protect the environment.

China has paid a heavy price for its rapid economic growth in the past decades, Wu said, and the current environment problems have become bottlenecks for its sustainable economic and social development. The only way to break these bottlenecks is to create a new path for the green economy with low emissions and sustainable development.

“China will speed up technological innovation to lead this new development of the green economy,” said Wang Weizhong, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, at the summit.

Wang said during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15), China will make breakthroughs in core technologies, strengthen efforts in new energy, information, new materials and biology sectors, and improve its corporate and science innovation capabilities.

Global cooperation

By holding the green industry expo, said Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Yaoping, the Chinese Government aims to set up three important platforms: a platform for Chinese and foreign companies to exchange and create commercial opportunities; a platform for the Chinese Government to display its resolutions and actions to cope with climate change; and a platform to educate the public about the green efforts.

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“The three platforms will play an active role in promoting green and low-carbon production, living and consumption patterns,”he said.

China has a good industrial base and a huge market to develop the green economy, Jiang said. Compared with developed countries, China is on par in some sectors, clean energy for example, but lags far behind in other aspects, such as technology, R&D and talent, so the task now is to enhance innovation and international cooperation.

“The Chinese Government will uphold the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities,’ strengthen international cooperation to tackle climate change and continue to increase support to companies to carry out international exchange,” Jiang said.

The Chinese Government also encourages domestic companies to introduce advanced technologies and equipment in the energysaving, environment protection and low-carbon economy sectors, and will give preferential policies for overseas investment in the green industry, Jiang said. Equally important, China is willing to carry out cooperation with other countries in the energy-saving and environment protection sectors under bilateral frameworks for mutual benefts.

The market prospects of China’s green industry have become a magnet for foreign companies looking to invest. At the Green Expo this year, 60 percent of the participants were foreign companies.

Jiang said the Chinese Government will ensure fair competition to foreign companies and grant them equal treatment as Chinese companies.

The Chinese Government has also launched a series of policies and industrial plans on developing the green industry and green economy. Among these, many are about expanding and strengthening international cooperation and where the Chinese Government will uphold the principle of fairness and transparency.

Among the 12,493 international bidding projects for machinery and electric products in 2009, foreign companies bid on 8,863 projects and won 6,887.

Jiang added that as the green economy develops, China will launch more policies to encourage the equal competition between domestic and international companies.

LIU HAIFENG