Global ecological crisis is becoming increasingly pressing as the earth has far exceeded the upper limit of its bearing capacity. The crisis has endangered the ecological security of the planet as well as the survival and sustainable development of human beings. Therefore, coping with the global ecological crisis with more concerted efforts has become a worldwide concern.

Last year, a package of the implementation guidelines of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change were agreed upon at the COP24 UN Climate Change Conference 2018 in Katowice, Poland, marking a milestone that handling global ecological crisis has entered the stage of taking more substantial action. Looking into the future, the UN Climate Change Summit 2019 to be held in September will also focus more on promoting global cooperation with more concentrated action.

At present, the UN is advancing two major agendas concurrently. One is the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the other is the Paris Agreement, and the ways to achieve both should be interrelated.

All countries should take climate change seriously and advance a low-carbon development mode on one hand and promote their economic and social progress and eliminate poverty and improve people's livelihoods on the other.

At this point, developing countries should coordinate the two sides, and turn addressing global ecological crisis into an opportunity for their own sustainable development, so as to achieve a win-win outcome of economic development and environment protection.

Actually, the response to the global ecological crisis, represented by climate change, concerns the common interest of all humankind. If humankind does not intensify efforts to handle the crisis in the next 20 to 30 years, it may trigger an irreversible and catastrophic ecological crisis.

Consequently, the building of a fair and just mechanism for global environmental governance, with a win-win outcome and common action, is a matter of great urgency. The mechanism can enable all countries in the world to advance together and embark on a sustainable path featuring green and low-carbon.

As a big country in the world, China has drawn up two-stage development plans for its modernization drive in the new era. The way to achieve those goals would follow the global agenda, as it not only concerns its own ambition to be a strong country, but also help human beings be more sustainable.

To protect the ecological safety of the Earth, China would be a pioneer.

Likewise, in its own modernization drive, the thought on building ecological civilization, featuring a green, low-carbon, circular, and sustainable development mode, would not only guide China’s own growth, but also play a positive driving role in addressing climate change in the world.

China’s proposals of building global ecological civilization and community of common destiny for all mankind would be a significant guideline for addressing global climate change, and China will take an active action.

To this end, no matter how many difficulties China may encounter in the short term, the long-term goal of promoting green and low-carbon development should not be lost. The greater efforts we make, the better results China will achieve.

Also, China would offer its own wisdom and experience in addressing the issue. China can prove that economic growth and people’s livelihood-upgrading can be done in a harmonious way with the Earth's ecology protection and global green, low-carbon transformation. Only in this way can China contribute to the sustainable development of the whole world and boast a bigger presence in the international community.

China intends to achieve peak CO2 emissions around 2030, and is to achieve zero emissions by the middle of the century or the second half of the century at the latest. In comparison, the EU achieved the peak in the 1980s, and Japan and the US did in 2005, so these countries have 50 to 70 years to fulfill their zero-emission goals.

In other words, China only has 20 to 30 years to accomplish zero emission from the peak, which is an arduous task. Therefore, China has to accelerate the transformation in a very short time, and the sooner the transition happens, the better initiatives it can take in the future.

Currently, the world is in the “window period” for low-carbon transformation. If this period is not made a good use, the whole world will lose a golden chance to protect the Earth's ecology and may face more challenges and pay higher costs in the future. What’s worse, the world may be trapped in a catastrophic stage with potentially irreversible risks.

To avoid such situation from happening, China would drive the low-carbon transformation worldwide with a global vision and advance energy production and consumption revolution.

In outlining the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), or the first stage goal of the two-stage development plan that the Communist Party of China will lead the country to basically realize socialist modernization by 2035, it is necessary for authorities to take issues such as climate change, and green, low-carbon development into account, and make them as a key part of China's overall development strategy.

The building of an ecological civilization should be listed along with economic and social goals in the country's modernization drive, so as to achieve a win-win situation in addressing climate change characterized by economic growth, social progress, and energy security. And it is an important strategy for China to take in driving global sustainability.

President Xi Jinping said that building an ecological civilization is of national and historic significance for China’s future growth. However, we should be aware of the fact that China is still at the initial stage of low-carbon transformation or green growth. And China is also faced with tough battles to fight against ecological crisis with limited time for transformation.

Therefore, China should take Xi's ecological civilization thought as an important guide, intensify efforts in transforming the growth mode with greater determination, and move toward a path of low-carbon development. China’s adoption of a green and low-carbon path is more than a must-follow road in its own modernization drive, but will also makes contribution to the world’s economic transformation.

This article is compiled by China Watch based on a speech given by He Jiankun, the Vice Chairman of China’s National Experts Panel on Climate Change and Chairman of Academic Committee of the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Tsinghua University.