China on the Way to Achieving Carbon Neutrality

Abstract

Sustainable development is recognized as a concept that can interrupt a series of crises observed today and bring the world to a new effective and fair level. The mechanism for implementing the concept is an approach that integrates into the decision-making process, in addition to the already existing criterion of economic efficiency, ESG-criteria, namely: criteria of environmental friendliness, social responsibility and managerial efficiency. Countries integrate these criteria in different ways into national development strategies. This is due to the nature of the problems they face and the solution of which seems to be a priority. Of great interest in this regard is the experience of China — the largest economy in the world, which has also embarked on a phase of active integration of ESG criteria into the national strategy, with an emphasis on the E-criterion (environmental), assuming that the achievement of efficiency for the rest criteria is impossible without first-priority solution of the accumulated problems in the field of ecology. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the strategic decisions of the Chinese government under the influence of the environmental factor. The article analyzes the approaches to substantiating the ideology of environmental reforms (building an ecological civilization) and its key components, namely: the national climate program, the ecological red line, combating desertification and mitigating climate change, combating water pollution and eliminating water shortages. The following conclusion was made. China has rich and interesting experience in solving the problem of modernizing production, ensuring its rational distribution and reducing the environmental burden on the territory, primarily in the framework of combating environmental pollution and climate change. The Chinese experience may be interesting for other countries, including Russia.