--By Pan Jiahua, Institute for Urban & Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Low carbon transformation in China is an issue of how to have the process accelerated in a fundamental manner instead of being the one of whether or not. China is not only one of the biggest emitters in the world, but also among the most vulnerable countries to climate change. High urgencies also come from energy and ecological securities.

Industrialism has been flourishing since the open-up and reform in 1978, characterized by two digit rate of economic growth, rapid accumulation of physical infrastructure and high cost of environmental pollution and ecological degradation. Currently China’s urbanization level is at least 20 percentage points lower than that in the developed world and industrialization has not been accomplished. The challenges ahead are immense with respect to large scale of rural-urban migration, reduced scope for investment- and export- driven growth, and carbon and ecological constraints. There is a consensus that conventional approaches under an industrial civilization cannot be sustained any further.

An ecological civilization calls for respect for and harmony with nature. Before industrial revolution, virtually there were no fossil fuels to power the economy and the economy will have to go low or zero carbon decades or a century later as fossil fuels will be exhausted. Industrial civilization will have to diminish and ecological civilization will be more and more dominating. Low or zero carbon can help and speed up the process of transformation from an industrial into an ecological civilization.

Low carbon production and consumption are essential approaches to an ecological civilization. In this regard, China must take the lead to promote low carbon transformation such that an ecological civilization will prevail and dictate social behaviors and institutions for sustainability.

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