Countries must cooperate to create a stable and sustaining international environment to promote the green economy

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as the Rio+20 Summit, was an important international conference that sought to revive global sustainable development and rally international efforts to deal with long-standing and newly emerging global challenges. It came 20 years after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, and 10 years after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg,

Focusing on the green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and an institutional framework for such development, the conference reviewed past achievements and promoted the formation of new political commitments.

Despite international efforts over the past 20 years to promote global sustainable development, there are still severe challenges to be overcome. In 2011, the world's population passed 7 billion. More than 1 billion people live below the poverty line and the majority of countries, nearly two-thirds, have not yet completed industrialization and modernization. Meanwhile, the world's growing population and development demands are putting ever more pressure on the Earth's resources and the environment. Compared with the situation 20 years ago, global challenges such as food security, energy and resources security, environmental risks, climate change, and major natural disasters are even more prominent.

The fairness issue is another great challenge to global sustainable development. Rapid global economic development has accelerated the accumulation of wealth, but the gap between the developed world and the least developed countries continues to expand. Many countries are facing various social problems brought about by a widening wealth gap. The fairness issue has become a root cause of regional conflict, ecological destruction and social unrest. And struggling with the effects of the international financial crisis, developed countries are loath to honor their commitments to help developing countries achieve the goal of sustainable development through the transfer of funds and technology.

China, as the largest developing country in the world, has long been committed to popularizing the concept of sustainable development, and it has implemented a national sustainable development strategy. The Chinese government adheres to the principle of coordinating economic development with the protection of resources and the environment, and has adopted a series of positive and practical measures.

First, China's understanding of sustainable development is deepening and the country has put forward a series of advanced ideas, such as the New Path of Industrialization, the Scientific Outlook on Development, a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society, an innovation-oriented country, and ecological conservation. Second, China has made every effort to promote a fundamental shift in its economic growth mode and promote green economic development. Besides using advanced technologies to promote the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries and eliminating its backward production capacity, China has vigorously developed strategic emerging industries in the fields of energy conservation, environmental protection and new energy. Third, extensive experimental sustainable development projects are under way.

After 20 years of unremitting efforts and positive practice, the energy, resources and environmental costs supporting China's economic growth continue to decline. While China's GDP has jumped from 11th to second in the world, the energy consumption per unit of GDP has decreased by 44.8 percent and water consumption per unit of GDP has decreased by 80.3 percent in the past 20 years, while forest coverage has increased from 12.98 percent to 20.36 percent.

Developing a green economy requires technical and financial support, the joint participation of producers and consumers, as well as a good market environment and appropriate policy mechanisms.

However, in developing countries the research and development capability to promote the green economy still does not meet actual needs. The core technologies to support and lead green industry are yet to be advanced. The policy and market-oriented incentive and restraint mechanism for the transformation to a green economy needs to be further improved. The investment and financing channels for promoting research into green technology and green industrial development need to be nurtured. In developing countries, consumers' spending power is very low, so the development of the green economy is likely to face pressure from the lack of consumer demand. In addition, an overly quick development of a green economy will have adverse effects on the employment of certain groups, economic development and the social stability of underdeveloped areas.

Without prior experience in developing a green economy, countries should work together to jointly create a stable and sustaining international environment.

First, they need to share their development experiences. Countries should strengthen exchanges and share information openly. Second, they should share green technology. Developed countries should fulfill their financial commitments, eliminate technological limitations and monopolies, and help developing countries in enhancing their technological capacity so they can achieve a green transformation. Third, the transformation to a green economy needs the support of markets and consumers, so countries, especially developed ones, should refrain from setting up green trade barriers or engaging in trade protectionism so as to create a favorable international environment for the green transformation.

Due to countries' different national conditions and different stages of development, the international community should not set a unified roadmap and timetable for the transformation to a green economy, but encourage diverse green development models.

The author is a researcher with China 21st Century Agenda Management Center.