Adaptability key to nation's environmental progress

The country has understood very well that it is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and the interest of China in solving this problem is not just an international question, but very much a question that affects the success of the domestic economy, he said.

The gradual shift in thinking first saw China upgrade the NEPA to the State Environmental Protection Administration, "which was a big step-up, but still not as powerful as a ministry", he said.

However, the country was to roll out a lot more measures in the years to come, according to Lees.

"When the issue ever emerged, China took decisions which were, I don't say necessarily unique, but which were very different from the way this problem was handled in other countries," he said.

"Therefore, it was very successful in my opinion, in tackling the climate change question."

Recognizing confronting climate change as an issue that should be built into the whole strategy for economic growth, he said, China has adopted an all-of-government mechanism in which a premier-headed leading group consisting of all ministries concerned was established.

The leading group Lees mentioned was launched in 2007 with 30 ministries and commissions as its members. Its remit is to respond to climate change, conserve energy and reduce emissions. Similar leading groups were also set up in all provincial regions across the country.

"So they put the climate issue right at the core of government strategy... I think that was very different from most countries who considered climate to be an environment problem and put it into the environment ministry where of course there was no power to solve the problem," he said.

Lees described the significant leapfrog in the country's environmental industry following the shift in thinking.

When he proposed the development of an environmental industry to Chinese authorities in the 1990s, "they didn't understand what the hell I was talking about", he said.

But after he talked with officials from the State Environmental Protection Administration, the administration decided to convene a conference themed on this strange term, which resulted in an item in the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) to start the process of building environmental industries in China, he said.

Over only a short period, he said solar and wind power, electric vehicles and environmental technologies have become major parts of China's economy.

"I just want to underline how thinking has evolved in China. That shows you that in a very short time, China moved from not understanding the need to do it, to doing it very successfully," he noted.