China should take the path of environmentally friendly sustainable consumption and production while building a well-off society, senior officials and experts agreed Thursday.

The officials and experts, from home and abroad, are in Beijing for the second meeting of the China Council for International Co-operation on Environment and Development's third phase, which opened Thursday and will end on Saturday.

The meeting has the theme of "A Well-off Society and Sustainable Industrialization.''

Many experts agree that China has entered a crucial time and its environment will be ravaged if it fails to make the correct decisions for development, said Paul Thibault, president of the Canadian International Development Agency and a vice-chairman of the council.

Mans Lonnroth, former state secretary of Sweden's Ministry of Environment and also a council vice-chairman, said China's fast economic development leaves little time for thought and each sector is evolving in its own way.

It means co-ordination among different sectors has to be strengthened to stave off unsustainable development, he said.

Thibault said the Chinese Government has already noticed the environmental challenge it faces and is making great efforts in this issue.

During the past year, China has enacted a series of environmental laws to promote cleaner production, introduce a requirement for environmental impact assessments and better control radioactive pollution, among others, according to China's Environmental Protection Administration Minister Xie Zhenhua.

Actions also include a nationwide campaign to inspect and close down or halt the production of enterprises across the country which are responsible for pollution. Local governments in China are actively seeking practicable patterns of sustainable development, Xie, also a council vice-chairman, said yesterday.

For example, several regions, including South China's Hainan, Northeast China's Jilin and Heilongjiang, and East China's Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong and Anhui provinces, are making efforts to become "eco-provinces.'' It basically means their economic development is striving to be in harmony with the local environment.

Xie said China must change the conventional way it has been progressing, which features high consumption and serious pollution with a low production capacity.

The country should instead adopt a high-tech system of low energy consumption and pollution with high efficiency, while making full use of its human resources.

Qu Geping, another council vice-chairman and former chairman of the Committee of Environmental and Resources Protection under the National People's Congress, called for the establishment of a comprehensive policy making system for sustainable development as soon as possible.

Systems that encourage the participation of enterprises and the general public should also be set up, he added.

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