'China can help lead world to transform to ecological future'

The Chinese government can help lead the world to transform from industrial civilization to an ecological future characterized by sustainable economic growth, US scholar Roy Morrison told Xinhua on Wednesday.[Special report]

"The Nov. 12, 2013 Communique of the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party made quite clear the intention to operationalize China's commitment for an ecological future with supplying much policy detail," said Morrison, currently a fellow at the Center for Ecozoic Societies at the University of North Carolina, in an interview with Xinhua.

As a long-time sustainability researcher and an ecological civilization expert, Morrison observed China's effort on ecological improvement for some years.

He predicted in his "Eco Civilization 2140 -- A Twenty-Second-Century History and Survivor's Journal," a book published in 2005, that "China leads the way toward sustainability" in 2070-2090.

"The Chinese leadership appears intent on continuing a process of economic reform, increased investment, and economic growth in the context of ecological improvement. Can China make economic growth mean ecological improvement? We await with great anticipation the policies that unfold from the Communique's broad outline, but the vision for the future is a positive one."

In a communique released Tuesday after a key session of the Plenum, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has vowed to establish a sound system to protect the country's ecological environment.

"In constructing eco-civilization, it is imperative to build a sound system and to protect the ecological environment through the system," said the communique.

The document urged drawing a "red line" for ecological protection, implementing a system of paid use of resources and ecological compensation, and reforming the system for the protection and administration of ecological environment.

"What is essential for ourselves and for future generations is not 'limit to growth' per se, but an end to polluting, depleting and ecologically destructive growth," Morrison said. "The goal is transformation of economic growth into a proactive force for ecological improvement that will mean an end to global poverty in a sustainable global ecological civilization."

In his famous book "Ecological Democracy" which was published in 1995, he stated that the world is in a movement of transforming from an industrial to an ecological civilization. And in the era of ecological civilization, "our concern is not to control nature and each other, but to live in harmony with nature and each other."

His definition of the ecological civilization was widely used by researchers and scholars worldwide.

He said the role of government is crucial in shaping the market price system, market rules and ecological taxation, as well as exerting enormous influence through its investment and policy decisions.

China intends to make the commitment for an ecological future realized, he added.