Society

Official envisions future 'ecological civilization'

By Han Tianyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-12 08:07

Society needs to create a new model for urbanization to cope with shrinking resources and a worsening environment, said an official in China's top political advisory body during a recent conference between government and business representatives.

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During the fourth International CEO Roundtable of Chinese and Foreign Multinational Corporations that ended on Nov 7 in Beijing, Zheng Wantong, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), chairman of the roundtable organizing committee, and president of the China International Council for the Promotion of Multinational Corporations (CICPMC), gave a speech on building low-carbon cities.

He warned that traditional urbanization has proven unsustainable and the world now needs low-carbon cities.

Zheng Wantong, CPPCC Vice-Chairman

"Building low-carbon cities is a complicated, arduous, dynamic and long-term project - it requires fundamental change in people's ideas and lifestyles as well as in technological innovation and patterns of development," said Zheng.

"We should develop and apply new energy technology to achieve urbanization with lower carbon emissions and balance the relationship between cities and nature and between cities and economics."

Zheng noted that information technology is a useful tool to make cities more convenient, efficient and safe, so planners should put more effort in building Internet-related infrastructure, he said.

"Ecological civilization" was another key concept in Zheng's vision of low-carbon cities. He noted that civilization and business have a dialectical relationship.

"People should use the idea of ecological civilization to correct defects of business," he said.

Traditional culture is an internal and indispensable component of cities, so culture continuity also needs more attention from citizens, said Zheng.

"We should raise the awareness of people about protecting historic heritage and promote the spirit of cities."

Developing cultural industries is a good way to make use of traditional resources, he added, noting that China should have low-carbon cities with unique cultural characteristics and special Chinese style.

The slogan for this year's roundtable is "promoting multinational corporations' investment, strengthening corporate social responsibility and facilitating sustainability development". It was co-organized by CICPMC and several UN organizations.

(China Daily 11/12/2010 page4)