Vice-Premier pledges 'ecological progress'

'Livable environment and a good living standard important to people'

China needs to strengthen efforts in five aspects to reach the goal of building a modernized country with ecological progress, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday.

The five aspects are green development, establishing people-centered policies, enlarging the market for renewable resources, deepening reform and enhancing international cooperation.

Li was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2012 annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Vice-Premier Li Keqiang (2nd R) meets with foreign guests attending the 2012 annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development in Beijing on Dec 12, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

"Ecological progress" has been a hot term since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November, when the country's top leaders pledged that political, economic, social and cultural progress will take full account of the environment to ensure the pursuit of "a beautiful China" with a low-carbon economy.

Li said China has adopted a basic national policy to conserve resources and protect the environment over the past 30 years, which has alleviated environmental damage to a certain extent. But the situation faced by the country remains severe.

Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China accounted for 20 percent of global energy consumption with only about a 10 percent contribution to the global GDP in 2011.

"Although many measures have been taken, the trend of overall deterioration of the environment has not been fundamentally stopped," Xie said.

Under these circumstances, Li said China needs to find a new way for its development to avoid the old control-after-pollution path walked by developed economies.

"Environmental problems are generated during the process of development, and thus should be solved during development. But the development has to be sustainable," he said.