70 years of China's ecological progress

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, particularly after the introduction of the reform and opening-up policies of 1978, the Chinese government and the Chinese people have gained an increasingly deeper understanding of the importance of environmental protection and ecological conservation. In recent years, much headway has been made in pollution treatment and ecological progress.

LEGISLATION

With the fast development of economy and industrialization in the past seven decades, China has witnessed an increasing occurrence of environmental problems. The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government have paid great attention to this situation, and formulated various laws and regulations to improve ecological environment.

1973: Environmental protection was taken as a criterion to evaluate government performance at the first National Environmental Protection Meeting.
1978: It was included into the Constitution that “The State protects the environment and natural resources. It prevents and controls pollution and other public hazards.”
2002: The Law on Promotion of Cleaner Production came into effect, indicating China had changed from treating pollution at terminals to controlling pollution in the entire production process.
2012: The report to the 18th CPC National Congress called for hard work to build a beautiful country, and achieve lasting and sustainable development of the Chinese nation.
2017: The report to the 19th CPC National Congress proposed speeding up reform of the system for developing an ecological civilization, and building a beautiful China.

INVESTMENT

With the understanding on environmental protection growing deeper and deeper, more investments have been made to promote ecological progress and environmental protection in the past 70 years.

Annual Expenditure on Environmental Protection

2.5-3.0
billion
yuan

early
1980s
10.0
billion
yuan

late
1980s
101.0
billion
yuan

2000
256.5
billion
yuan

2005
761.2
billion
yuan

2010
880.6
billion
yuan

2015
953.9
billion
yuan

2017

ECOLOGICAL PROGRESS

In 2018, 7.07 million hectares of trees were planted, up by 38.5% from the year 2000.

According to the UK journal Nature Sustainability released in February 2019, China alone accounted for 25% of the global net increase in leaf area between 2000 and 2017, and most of the greening area in China were the result of various tree planting campaigns.

Natural Environment coverage in China

Forests
Wetlands
Nature Reserves
Deserts

POLLUTION TREATMENT

The awareness of pollution control has become increasingly stronger in the past 70 years in China. In particular, a spate of policies, laws and measures were launched after 2000, greatly curbing the pollution of air, water and soil, and improving the overall environment.

Air quality

The Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) required that by the end of 2020, the ratio of days with good air quality at 338 major cities must exceed 80%.

Environmental Progress Statistics

Soil

Soil pollution is severe in China, with 16.1% of soil contaminated in 2013. However, compared with the treatment of air and water pollutions, the treatment of soil pollution has just started. In 2016, the Action Plan for Preventing and Controlling Soil Pollution was launched. It will be the guidance for all soil pollution treatment works for a long time.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Over the past 70 years, China has built up its environmental protection infrastructure from scratch. In particular, after 1978, the construction of environmental protection infrastructure has gathered speed, bringing about a significant improvement of people’s living conditions.

Urban area improvements between 2000 and 2017

100%

75%

50%

25%

2017

2000

urban domestic
sewage disposal
domestic waste
bio-safety disposal
population with
access to tap water
population with
access to gas

In 2017, the rate of urban domestic sewage disposal was 94.5%, up by 60.2 percentage points from the year 2000; the rate of domestic waste bio-safety disposal was 97.7%, up by 39.5 percentage points; the rate of population with access to tap water was 98.3%, up by 34.4 percentage points; the rate of population with access to gas was 96.3%, up by 50.9 percentage points; the coverage of centralized heating was 8.31 billion square meters, up by 6.5 times; the per-capita green park space was 14.0 square meters, up by 2.8 times.

Rural township infrastructure access in 2017

100%

75%

50%

25%

township domestic
sewage disposal
township waste
bio-safety disposal
population with
access to tap water
population with
access to gas

In townships in 2017, the rate of domestic sewage disposal was 17.2%; the rate of domestic waste bio-safety disposal was 23.6%, the rate of population with access to tap water was 78.8%, and the rate of population with access to gas was 25.0%.

In villages in 2017, the rate of population with access to sanitary toilets was 81.7%, up by 36.9 percentage points from 2000.

CONCLUSION

Much headway has been made in environmental protection and ecological progress since the founding of New China in 1949. Yet, it must also be noted that the country is still faced with severe challenges. We must treasure nature more consciously, protect the ecosystem more actively, and strive to build an ecological civilization and sustain development.