Green China will contribute to world's sustainable development

For the first time in history, building an ecological civilization has been made one of the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s top development priorities.

The historic move achieved at the just-ended 18th CPC National Congress will be a key turning point as China reconfigures its development model.

It will also help China make even more positive contributions to the world's sustainable development at large.

Thanks to more than 30 years of reforms and opening up, China has achieved sustained and rapid economic development and has become the world's second largest economy.

However, China's extensive economic growth mode has made the country a huge energy consumer, while its environment has been severely polluted, its ecosystem deteriorating.

Fossil fuel resources, which accounted for 91 percent of the country's total energy consumption, have been massively exploited, causing a certain amount of damage to the eco-environment.

In this age of globalization, environment degradation and climate change and no longer a challenge for any single nation or region, but requires a global solution.

In the keynote speech delivered by then CPC chief Hu Jintao's report at the Party Congress, he said mankind has only one earth to share. People should promote their awareness of their common destiny as human beings.

As an old Chinese saying goes: if one has no long-term considerations, he or she can hardly avoid troubles every now and then.

To maintain a sustainable economic growth and leave enough resource for future generations, more global efforts are needed to change the model of development.

Because of relatively low labor-cost and comparatively favorable investment conditions both central and local Chinese governments could provide foreign investors with since the late 1970s, products with the "made-in-China" label have been sold around the world.

Therefore, China has a solemn duty to prevent the resource-starved planet from getting worse, and in recent years, the Chinese government has already made considerable headway in protecting its environment.

The country formulated the bulk of its laws and regulations for dangerous wastes prevention and disposal during 2006-2010 and has been improving its ability to both utilize and dispose dangerous wastes. It disposed and utilized 8.4 million metric tons of dangerous waste in 2010, up 180 percent from 2006.

It was also during this effort that energy consumption per GDP unit dropped by 19.1 percent while energy-saving efforts helped reduce carbon emissions by 1.46 billion tons.

In 2011, Beijing issued the Work Plan for controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions During the 12th Five-year Plan Period, specifying its plans to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases through industrial restructuring.

To transform and upgrade traditional energy-intensive industries, China has released the 2011 edition of the Guideline Catalogue for Industrial Restructuring, further underlining the country's strategic direction toward conserving energy and cutting emissions by optimizing and upgrading its industrial structure.

Nevertheless, the effort of an individual nation is far from enough. China still needs to work even closer with other countries and regions around the world.

With years of effort from now on, there are good reasons to believe that China will finally attain modernization and common prosperity for its people, while at the same time making credible contributions to the world's sustainable development.