Environmental Challenges and Recovery in China

Concomitant with a rapid increase in population and an unprecedented growth of the economy, China came to endure an alarming level of environmental damage. In response, environmental legislation was tightened and massive environmental projects were initiated. As a result, China's environment and ecosystems are beginning to recover. At the same time, the country is continuing on its growth path, making an above-average contribution to the global emission of greenhouse gases, not least because of the heavy use of coal as a source of energy. The world's second-largest economy aims to halt this trend by rapidly building sustainable and clean energy resources and has committed itself to being carbon neutral by 2060. In this process, "beautiful China" intends to become the global role model of a "digital civilization" based on science and technology. This book describes the stakeholders, programs, and achievements along this path and provides an outlook on pertinent developments in the years to come.