The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has been set up amid this ongoing round of State Council institutional reforms, and it is expected to better serve the needs of people and promote the construction of China's eco-environmental system. This denotes the central government's determination to promote the ecological civilization in the new era.

About a week after the reforms were approved, Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group based in the United States, gave a keynote speech at a seminar at Tsinghua University themed on welcoming the fourth wave of environmentalism with innovation as its core, which coincides with China's ambition of fostering an ecological civilization.

Krupp pointed out that since the environmental protection movement began to progress, it has experienced three waves. The first, from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1950s, focused on land protection. The second, from the '60s to the '80s, used legal means to empower the public and the government, and prohibited companies from causing pollution to the ecological environment. The third wave began in the mid-1980s and ran to the beginning of the 21st century, emphasizing cooperation between environmental protection organizations and the business sector.

With the surge in big data, everyone has the opportunity to become a participant and supervisor of environmental governance. New technologies have made previously hidden environmental problems — such as gas leaks — not only visible, but also resolvable. Scientists can use satellite data to detect pollution sources from space, while entrepreneurs can see how pollution reduction technologies can actually bring profits.

Krupp said he believes the fourth wave of environmental protection can be seen as an integrated enhanced version of the first three. Its key words are innovation, people and action. That is, technological progress gives people the ability to innovate and take action to deal with environmental problems. The fourth wave has integrated resources such as science and technology, finance and markets to release human creativity, and its use advanced technologies to help the green development of all walks of life to ensure that humans and the environment on which they depend can thrive.

Krupp said that while the fourth wave is on the rise, China has also timely put forward the concept of developing an ecological civilization. The guiding ideology of innovation, coordination, green, openness and development has been integrated into all aspects of China's environmental governance. There is a similarity between the fourth wave and the construction of ecological civilization. Innovation in the fourth wave initiated by Environmental Defense Fund refers not only to the science and technology, but also to the environmental governance model in which all citizens participate.

Actually, practitioners of the fourth wave were active in different industries in China before the concept came into being.

He Kebing, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of Tsinghua University's School of Environment, introduced the action and fruits of capitalizing on big data to curb air pollution. Now, air quality monitoring stations set up by governments at different levels and third parties such as IBM are able to collect vast amounts of real-time data. The data will greatly support high temporal and spatial resolution in judging the sources and characteristics of air pollutants so that government departments can quickly take more accurate responding action.

Zhang Lin, dean of the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, together with his team, has been exploring the application of data science in environmental protection. His team calibrated air quality sensors and installed them on vehicles in the Tianjin Binhai New Area to find out the source of pollutants. Finally, besides the already detected sources, the data collected showed that trucks transporting goods to and from ports are another major source of air pollution.

Commercial institutes such as AIpark and the US-China Green Fund see business opportunities in the environmental protection industry. AIpark helps people plan trips better to ease environmental pressures and uses artificial intelligence to solve parking problems in big cities. This not only shortens the travel time, but also reduces the inefficient fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from idling vehicles. What's more, financial companies like US-China Green Fund are boosting the green industry through capital power.

It is clear that the Chinese government, environmentalists, technology innovators and business leaders are all exploring the forces that may be released to protect the environment. This is the manifestation of ecological civilization and resonates with the fourth wave of environmentalism. This new round of reform is not only related to China's future environment, but also of great significance to the social stability and economic development. It also contributes to the efforts made by the international community to meet the environmental challenge.

The author is an intern with China Watch.

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