Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development …
63
2. Trends
In the short term, the pressure on resources and the environment will likely remain
high. The next five to ten years are expected to be critical for the overall improvement
of resource efficiency and environment quality in China. Internationally, for cities
such as London and Los Angeles, it was 20–30 years before air pollution was effectively curbed. According to our analysis, China’s resource- and pollution-intensive
industries will reach their peaks or plateaus in the five to ten years. This means that
both conventional pollutant discharge and consumption of major raw materials will
peak around 2020. The pressure on China’s resource reserves and environment is
still high. From 2020 to 2030, as China’s total population reaches and passes the
peak and industrialization and urbanization in the traditional sense will be basically
completed, the total fossil energy consumption and carbon emissions of the country
will also peak or plateau and then start to decline, and the quality of the environment
is expected to improve on the whole.
The new technological revolution is sweeping across different sectors and is characterized by intelligence, integration, environment-friendliness, inclusiveness and
interaction. At the same time, as AI penetrates fast into people’s daily life, green
lifestyles spread relatively slow. It takes time to popularize the concepts of green
production and consumption. AI makes progress very rapidly, but green technologies move forward at a much slower pace and require high costs to employ. Green
consumption models such as quality-oriented consumption, collaborative consumption, and service-oriented consumption have emerged, but public awareness is not yet
high enough. Consumers seem more inclined to adopt green consumption behavior
that brings health, safety, and economic benefits. Currently, they are not willing to
pay a premium price for green products.
Anti-globalization sentiments are growing and the leading position for global
green development is vacant. Anger over the unfairness of globalization has led to
the rise of populism and protectionism in various countries and a decline in the
international community’s interest in the transformation towards green and lowcarbon development. Realism gradually gained an upper hand. After the United States
announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the international community
has high expectation that China will take over leadership in global climate mitigation.
In any case, the uncertainty in China–U.S. economic relations will have a profound
impact on the global political and economic order and give rise to concerns over
security risks.
3 Theoretical Basis for Building a Comprehensive
Ecological Civilization System
Building an ecological civilization system is not only about formulating a new set of
rules under the guidance of the environment-first value orientation, but also about the
inheritance and development of existing institutional arrangements. To build a good
63
2. Trends
In the short term, the pressure on resources and the environment will likely remain
high. The next five to ten years are expected to be critical for the overall improvement
of resource efficiency and environment quality in China. Internationally, for cities
such as London and Los Angeles, it was 20–30 years before air pollution was effectively curbed. According to our analysis, China’s resource- and pollution-intensive
industries will reach their peaks or plateaus in the five to ten years. This means that
both conventional pollutant discharge and consumption of major raw materials will
peak around 2020. The pressure on China’s resource reserves and environment is
still high. From 2020 to 2030, as China’s total population reaches and passes the
peak and industrialization and urbanization in the traditional sense will be basically
completed, the total fossil energy consumption and carbon emissions of the country
will also peak or plateau and then start to decline, and the quality of the environment
is expected to improve on the whole.
The new technological revolution is sweeping across different sectors and is characterized by intelligence, integration, environment-friendliness, inclusiveness and
interaction. At the same time, as AI penetrates fast into people’s daily life, green
lifestyles spread relatively slow. It takes time to popularize the concepts of green
production and consumption. AI makes progress very rapidly, but green technologies move forward at a much slower pace and require high costs to employ. Green
consumption models such as quality-oriented consumption, collaborative consumption, and service-oriented consumption have emerged, but public awareness is not yet
high enough. Consumers seem more inclined to adopt green consumption behavior
that brings health, safety, and economic benefits. Currently, they are not willing to
pay a premium price for green products.
Anti-globalization sentiments are growing and the leading position for global
green development is vacant. Anger over the unfairness of globalization has led to
the rise of populism and protectionism in various countries and a decline in the
international community’s interest in the transformation towards green and lowcarbon development. Realism gradually gained an upper hand. After the United States
announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the international community
has high expectation that China will take over leadership in global climate mitigation.
In any case, the uncertainty in China–U.S. economic relations will have a profound
impact on the global political and economic order and give rise to concerns over
security risks.
3 Theoretical Basis for Building a Comprehensive
Ecological Civilization System
Building an ecological civilization system is not only about formulating a new set of
rules under the guidance of the environment-first value orientation, but also about the
inheritance and development of existing institutional arrangements. To build a good