On General Sustainable Development
505
the stage where their chief pursuit is living necessities and industrialization, so the
structural change is dominated by industries that produce tangible goods. Troubled
by insufficient materials, capital and talents and weak R&D capability, they feature
backward technologies and rely on import for technological progress. As such, developing countries and regions can only choose and implement the relative ecological
modernization of economic structure.
2. Prevention-based environmental policies
Up till now, environmental policies in China are still stop-gap measures that only
address symptoms. Rolled out to target specific pollutants, these policies don’t
tackle the root causes and the detailed objectives, indicators and systems of various
programs are hardly coordinated, so pollution may transfer among various environmental media or regions. Therefore, although existing policies are necessary
to address pollution that has already taken place, prevention-based environmental
policies, as a new approach, have to be launched to root out the problem.
The accumulation of environmental damages, acquisition of technology and
knowledge and enhancement of public awareness—the sequence of these three interrelated and simultaneous policy processes, especially the sequence of them reaching
criticality, is decisive for the prevention-based environmental policy system.
We can accelerate the accumulation of technology and knowledge and enhance
public awareness by investing more in environmental technology R&D and environmental education, but that still largely depends on the specific environmental problems that need to be addressed. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) enables
people to learn more about the possible environmental impacts of construction
projects and urges proper measures before any damage is done. It usually allows
imposing the economic burden on the project initiator, which complies with the
precondition or principle for implementing prevention-based environmental policies—whoever causes the pollution shall pay for prevention and control. This can be
regarded as an important part of prevention-based environmental policies.
The threshold of technology, knowledge and public awareness changes as people
come to know and understand more about environmental damages that have happened
or will happen. Therefore, environmental standards should be dynamic and adjusted
in different countries, sectors or even different regions of the same country.
3. Ecological modernization of economic mechanism
The planned economy featuring unmatched responsibilities and rights falls to
encourage enterprises enough to pursue economic benefits. Establishing market
economy is one of the preconditions for sustainable development, yet even the most
advanced market economy today isn’t perfect, otherwise market economies wouldn’t
face such serious environmental problems. Therefore, following the requirement of
ecological sustainability, reforming the current market economy operation mechanism and conducting ecological modernization of it is another crucial strategic factor
of sustainable development.
505
the stage where their chief pursuit is living necessities and industrialization, so the
structural change is dominated by industries that produce tangible goods. Troubled
by insufficient materials, capital and talents and weak R&D capability, they feature
backward technologies and rely on import for technological progress. As such, developing countries and regions can only choose and implement the relative ecological
modernization of economic structure.
2. Prevention-based environmental policies
Up till now, environmental policies in China are still stop-gap measures that only
address symptoms. Rolled out to target specific pollutants, these policies don’t
tackle the root causes and the detailed objectives, indicators and systems of various
programs are hardly coordinated, so pollution may transfer among various environmental media or regions. Therefore, although existing policies are necessary
to address pollution that has already taken place, prevention-based environmental
policies, as a new approach, have to be launched to root out the problem.
The accumulation of environmental damages, acquisition of technology and
knowledge and enhancement of public awareness—the sequence of these three interrelated and simultaneous policy processes, especially the sequence of them reaching
criticality, is decisive for the prevention-based environmental policy system.
We can accelerate the accumulation of technology and knowledge and enhance
public awareness by investing more in environmental technology R&D and environmental education, but that still largely depends on the specific environmental problems that need to be addressed. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) enables
people to learn more about the possible environmental impacts of construction
projects and urges proper measures before any damage is done. It usually allows
imposing the economic burden on the project initiator, which complies with the
precondition or principle for implementing prevention-based environmental policies—whoever causes the pollution shall pay for prevention and control. This can be
regarded as an important part of prevention-based environmental policies.
The threshold of technology, knowledge and public awareness changes as people
come to know and understand more about environmental damages that have happened
or will happen. Therefore, environmental standards should be dynamic and adjusted
in different countries, sectors or even different regions of the same country.
3. Ecological modernization of economic mechanism
The planned economy featuring unmatched responsibilities and rights falls to
encourage enterprises enough to pursue economic benefits. Establishing market
economy is one of the preconditions for sustainable development, yet even the most
advanced market economy today isn’t perfect, otherwise market economies wouldn’t
face such serious environmental problems. Therefore, following the requirement of
ecological sustainability, reforming the current market economy operation mechanism and conducting ecological modernization of it is another crucial strategic factor
of sustainable development.