Forward
Since the industrial revolution in the UK in 1800s, the world entered a fast stage of economic growth and civilization. This can be seen in the increase of the wealth per capita, first in developed countries, now in the developing countries in the last two centuries. A variety of manmade goods were invented and used each year. But the global resource- and environmental situation is already beyond the earth’s longer term carrying capacity. The modern existential crisis, which the Western capitalistic structure has placed itself in, is getting out of control, and is manifesting itself in a self-destructive process. Though many government, international organizations and non-government organizations have already spent lots of effort to reverse the process, it seems that incremental environmental improvements are not good enough to deal with the ecological-, health- and development challenges of rapidly rising consumption and population growths.
Today, it seems that there is no global recognized strategy for economic growth leading to sustainable development.
China, as a fast catching up country, has entered a period of rapid economic growth. From the 1980s onward, China has witnessed fast economic development and outstanding achievements, which, however, come at the price of its resources and environment. The conflict between economic growth and resources and environment in the nation is becoming increasingly acute.
The unique Chinese growth and crises have their roots. Firstly, China is a world manufacturing base and produces a lot of goods for the world. Secondly, China is entering its heavy-chemical stage of industrialization. In this stage, pollution per GDP is higher than at other stages. Thirdly, for a long time, there has been mismatched strategy: government emphasized economic growth and neglected the equally important sustainable development.
As China faced a challenge that other countries do not have, the Chinese government has decided to build environmentally friendly society. China could lead the world in environmentally friendly technologies, provided it seizes the opportunity for radical innovations.
Introduced into China in 2005 as a development concept, an environment-friendly society is one where harmony between man and nature and between man and man is promoted on the basis of the carrying capacity of the environment and resources, under the guidance of natural law and by means of sustainable economic, technological and cultural policies. The aim of such a society is to create an efficient productive system, a moderate consumption and living system, sustainable and recycling resource environmental systems, a stable and efficient economic system, an innovative technological system, open and orderly trade and financial systems, a fair distribution system and an enlightened and progressive socialist democratic system. For the 11th Five Year plan period, China has set the goals of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by about 20% and cutting down the total discharge of major pollutants by about 10%. To achieve these goals, it is necessary to uphold the scientific development outlook, develop recycling economy by dint of advanced technologies, and accelerate the building of a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society though innovation. These efforts are also fundamental to breaking restrictions of resources and the environment and realizing better and faster socioeconomic development. Currently, a conspicuous problem that China faces is that it has accumulated some advanced environmental protection and energy-saving technologies, but without strict technical controls. Related technologies from the developed world have yet to be introduced to businesses and families. In this sense, it is imperative for the nation’s environmental sector to accelerate the entrance of environmental technologies into economic activities and put them to good use. In response, this study aims to find a workable solution from the perspective of the national innovation system（NIS）, to help China transform into an environment-friendly society.
Innovation comes from the bottom up, not from the top down. China needs to develop incentives to stimulate innovative ideas. This could form a major investment to ensure competitive proposals are received and evaluated strictly on a merit basis. In the longer run it is clear that many ideas need to be supported as only very few innovations will become commercially relevant in the short term. Basic research in fields such as Information and Communication Technology, Nano-/Material technologies, and Bio-Technologies need to be fostered at globally competitive levels. Some of these can lead to short terms implementation, but others will provide the basis for capturing longer range ideas.
Of the key elements of a successful innovation system is a cultural setting that allows entrepreneurs to try a new idea, fail without being disgraced and be given the resources and opportunity to try again.
Creativity and innovation while having somewhat different meaning, to a very large degree are one and the same. China（along with many other countries）has focused much of its education on developing highly specialized skills. These are important in today’s global world. But it is important also in today’s world to release the creative potential of individuals and group. The culture of breaking down disciplines is essential for innovation in science, technology, institutions and societies that this report documents is needed for the environment-friendly society.
Ⅰ. Achievements and Challenges of Technology Innovation in the Building of an Environment-friendly Society
1.1 Achievements of Innovation in the Building of an Environment-friendly Society
Environmental protection technology application and innovation is carried out in China either through domestic development or introduction of technologies from developed countries, by means of joint investment, technical cooperation or technical transfer. China’s environmental technologies generally develop rapidly and promise a large potential, with some approaching or even having reached the developed world’s levels.
With its rapid economic development, China has increased resources to address environmental issues with greater inputs into advanced technologies.
Firstly, China rapidly reduced its electricity consumption per GDP since 1980s. It means that China continuously introduced new technology to improve production efficiency （Figure 1）.
Secondly, over the past years, it has implemented the national key “water pollution control technology and treatment project”, which has led to a workable technological plan and a supporting technological system for water pollution control. Plus, the application of environmental monitoring technologies and facilities, the research and development of such pilot programs as purification of vehicle exhaust gases, desulphurization of flue gas discharged by coal-fueled boilers, disposal of solid waste, cleaner production of key sectors and other key technologies have effectively improved pollution control and environmental quality in some areas（river basins）. Wasterwater discharge per unit of GDP has been decreasing in the last five years（Figure 2）.
Figure 1 Consumption of energy in China
Source: China Statistical yearbook （2006）. Beijing: Chinese Press of Statistics, 2007.
Figure 2 Wastewater Discharge Performance per Unit of GDP in the 10th Five-year Plan Period
Thirdly, new processes and techniques have been developed to cope with the needs for urban sewage treatment in China by means of advanced approaches for nondegradable wastewater such as bioaugmentation, catalytic oxidation and membrane-biotreatment as well as high-efficiency inorganic polymeric flocculants. Application of these technologies has helped effectively control water pollution in the key river basins nationwide. Of the 2,130 water pollution prevention and control programs in key drainage areas in the 10th five-year plan, 1,378, or 65% of the total, had been completed by the end of 2005. In the drainage areas of the three rivers（Huaihe, Liaohe and Haihe）and three lakes（Taihu, Dianchi and Chaohu）, 416 wastewater treatment plants have been completed or are under construction, with a daily treatment capacity of 20.93 million tons. More than 80% of the over 5,000 heavy polluters in these basins have reached the standard for discharge level. As a result, water pollutants in these areas have been greatly reduced, the trend of water environment deterioration has been basically controlled, and quality of water in some parts of the rivers and lakes has notably improved. Statistics show that adoption of new environmental technologies and strengthening of pollution control during the 10th five-year plan period has led to remarkable reduction in China’s COD emission performance, with more noticeable results seen in 2001-2004 and less reduction in 2005. The emission of COD per unit of GDP in 2005 was 39.45% lower than in 2001.
1.2 Challenges to China’s Sustainable Environmental Development
It is important not only to consider improvements in environmental management on a per GDP basis（this is referred to as intensity targets）, but to ensure that total pollution is being reduced（this is referred to as absolute reduction – see Table 1）. Continued commitment to GDP growth means that the pollution emission per GDP while important does little to solve the overall problem. The pollution emission levels must be reduced.
Table 1 some indicator of air pollution in China
Atmosphere Environment 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Industrial Waste Air Emission （100 million cu.m） 160863 175257 198906 237696 268988
Fuels Burning 93526 103776 116447 139726 155238
Production Process 67337 71481 82459 97971 113749
Sulphur Dioxide Emission （10 000 tons） 1947 1927 2159 2255 2549
Industry 1566 1562 1792 1891 2168
Non-Industrial 381 365 367 364 381
Soot Emission （10 000 tons） 1070 1013 1049 1095 1183
Industry 852 804 846 887 949
Non-Industrial 218 209 202 209 234
Industrial Dust Emission （10 000 tons） 991 941 1021 905 911
Industrial Sulphur Dioxide Removed （10 000 tons） 565 698 749 890 1090
Industrial Soot Removed （10 000 tons） 12317 13998 15649 18075 20587
Industrial Dust Removed （10 000 tons） 5322 5570 5995 8529 6454
Number of Soot Control Zones Established （unit） 3203 3369 3599 3693 3452
Source: China Statistical yearbook （2007）. Beijing: Chinese Press of Statistics, 2007.
China now faces a very serious situation in sustainable development. Take the year 2006 for example, the total discharge of wastewater was 53.68 billion tons, up 2.3% from a year ago. To be specific, industrial wastewater declined by 1.1% from the previous year to stand at 24.02billion tons, accounting for 44.7% of the total; and municipal domestic wastewater rose by 5.8% from the previous year to reach 29.66 billion tons, representing 55.3% of the total. The volume of sulfur dioxide rose by 1.5% from the previous year to reach 25.888 million tons; and that of the soot emission fell by 7.9% from a year ago to 10.888 million tons. Investment in pollution control across the country grew by 7.5% from a year ago to hit a record of RMB 256.78 billion Yuan, or 1.23% of the then GDP. Serious accidents of environmental pollution and damage occur nationwide. The quality of 26% of the nation’s major rivers was lower than grade V standard. Seventy-five percent of the lakes became eutrophic to varying degrees. 360 million rural population had no access to up-to-standard drinking water[1]. It is estimated that China’s current discharge of major pollutants, like sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and chemical oxygen demand（COD）, far exceeds the environmental capacity, indicating the nation has already entered a period of high incidence of environmental pollution accidents. The grave reality tells a fact: unless China breaks the resource and environment bottleneck, it will see its resources, energy and eco-environment no longer able to sustain and guarantee its national security. Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan recently said with reference to the current status of the environment and prospects going forward, that “The sustainability of China’s economic and social development is at stake”.
To sustain its economic development and become an environment-friendly society, China needs to make four major transformations. First, in terms of economic growth pattern, the impetus to growth should be transformed from investment and export driven to domestic consumption and international demand driven. Second, from the perspective of industrial structure, the manufacturing industry should give way to a combination of industry, service sector and agriculture as the driving force behind economic expansion. A steady migration to the knowledge economy is going ahead. Third, on the level of production factor inputs, the basis for development should be shifted from capital and natural resources to human resources and technical progress. Fourth, with respect to resource utilization, the unidirectional linear process of resources- products- waste should give way to the feedback cyclic process of resources- products- waste- resource recycling[2]. These transformations aim to base economic growth on optimized economic structure, increased technical content, improved quality of population and enhanced quality and efficiency and to give rise to an economic growth pattern characterized by low inputs, high yields, low consumption, low discharge, recycling and sustainability. The core idea here is to promote the development and application of energy-saving and environment-friendly technologies, with technology innovation as the source, institutional innovation as the guarantee, and social innovation as the basis.
1.3 Problems in Environmental Technology innovation
Despite the successes in the development and application of environmental technologies, we should understand that China still faces a grave overall environmental situation and lags far behind developed countries in environmental engineering equipment. Its common problems remain pronounced and it has not yet met the requirements of environmental management. Thus the harmonious development of the environment and economy is inhibited. The problems are shown in the following aspects:
（1）Lack of overall strategic planning results in repetitive technology introduction
China currently has 11,555 environmental protection bodies and 266 environmental research institutes. Nevertheless, one basic feature of its environmental technology development is “taking everything”, which means it has used technologies of different countries and different standards, either in R&D or in engineering practice.
In 1987-2001, China received a total of USD 5.55 billion in loans, of which, 49.7% was from the World Bank, 23.9% from Asia Development Bank and 26.4% from the Japanese government, to support 45 environmental protection programs.
During the 8th five Year plan period, China borrowed USD 1.21 billion from international financial organizations, and the figure more than trebled to hit USD 3.98 billion in the subsequent five years’ time[3]. The amount borrowed from international financial organizations accounted for over a half of the total foreign capital that went to the nation’s environmental protection programs.
In terms of project implementation and completion, capital from these organizations made up for serious fund shortages, helped improve the production and living environments, pushing forward the development of China’s environmental protection sector. However, the lack of overall strategic planning on technology selection, coupled with the rather exacting requirements on procurement that generally come with international loans, made it impossible to guarantee that the procured technologies were the best.
For instance, the German government requires that limited competitive bidding should be carried out for a project financed under its loan and over 50% of the project’s goods and services should be supplied by Germany. The Netherlands requires that procurement of technologies, equipment or services worth more than 50% of the values of a contract financed under its loan should be made in the country, and supplies other than from the Netherlands should be contracted by the Dutch suppliers and be insured with Credit Insurance Ltd. NCM. In the case of South Korea, the government requires that the successful supplier of a project funded under its loan should be selected through limited competitive bidding from eligible South Korean suppliers. Besides, 75% of the equipment and services should in principle be procured in South Korea with the remaining 30% in China or a third country.
Due to the above restrictions, the primary instrument and elements for process control of pollution treatment facilities and for environmental monitoring cannot be localized and thus have to be imported again and again.
Besides, China has not put in place specific policies, guidelines and equipment （products）standards to provide overall strategic guidance for technology introduction. This has also contributed to the blind and repetitive introduction, impeded introduction channels and introduced technologies that are unsuitable for China. An example of repetitively introduced technologies is the desulfurization technology for thermal plants.
China has now substantially improved it’s overall funding capabilities and should therefore address the issue of overall strategic planning in a new light. Major funding would be needed in order for China to take the global lead. This would not only help China to deal with it’s own dramatic environmental problems, but by developing this as an indigenous specialty by creative funding incentives for the private sector, governments, universities, and research institutions, new growth industries would emerge for the global markets.
（2）Absence of technical assessment standards and means prejudices the effectiveness of technology introduction
Absence of assessment, pilot programs and tracking for technology introduction, combined with the headlong pursuit for “popularity” to the neglect of maturity, has turned China into an experimental field for all kinds of technologies. Huge amounts of money have been spent only to find the results are unsatisfactory. Unavailability of corresponding specifications and standards （for interface for example）has led to the introduction of different types of monitoring devices, which cannot operate on a uniform platform. Besides, no scientific and effective assessment means are available to assess these devices for accuracy and reliability. As a result, many online monitoring devices cannot be connected to the networks of the environmental departments, or even if they can, they are unable to provide reliable data to support the management of the environmental departments. These problems have not only prejudiced the effectiveness of technology introduction but also resulted in a huge waste of state capital.
A remedy to this situation would be to establish a number of competence centers for research focused innovation with a high international scientific quality. Emphasis should be given to cooperation between research-intensive companies and renowned research institutions. In this context, transfer of technologies, internationalization, and education of scientific researchers should be strengthened and adequate incentives provided. By using such centers to establish rigorous standards, and then applying these standards rigorously innovation in itself would result.
（3）Most domestic developed new technologies are not mature enough to be put into industrial application
A longstanding problem in China’s development efforts is the lack of connection between development and production engineering. This is primarily attributable to the fact that the results are not mature enough to be put, or effectively put, to practical, commercial and industrial use. Solution of this problem requires creation of a development system integrating production, education and research, a system that is oriented toward economic development and environmental protection and based on the support of businesses. In addition, capabilities should be enhanced for market demand forecast, technology selection and assessment, and technology application forecast, so as to identify environmental protection technology development plans that meet market demands. It is also necessary to strengthen capabilities to make the research results more practical and to introduce them to the market and expand their market share. A technology extension system and a venture capital investment system for technological development and application should be created.
（4）Incomplete technological assessment system impairs transformation of technological results
China has made great headway in the transformation and extension of environmental protection technologies along with its ever improving technological system. Nevertheless, it still lags far behind the developed countries in the transfer rate and contribution rate of technological results, with some virtually becoming stagnant and unable to be connected effectively with production. For instance, 84% of the technological achievements in the 7th and 8th five-year plan periods reached the intended advanced levels, but few of them were applied. This result is attributable to （a）lack of an objective and equitable environmental technology assessment system; （b）failure to connect technical assessment with the overall strategy on environmental protection and strategy on environmental technology development; （c）failure to gear the technological project assessment toward the state’s major demands on environmental management and pollution control; （d）absence of widely applicable and representative assessment technologies; （e）the extension efforts, which are not systemic and not connected to the targets of environmental management are thus unable to provide support for environmental management; and （f）disorderly competition, which makes the effective transfer and extension of good technologies impossible, leading to poor investment results, huge waste and slow pace in minimizing pollution.
（5）No systematic management and scientific guidance is available for pilot programs
Pilot programs cover new technologies and introduced technologies. As for new technologies, constant improvement and follow-up development will still need to be made during the pilot process. Since all pilot programs have limited applicable conditions, so in order to make a program serve as a model and provide guidance to other similar techniques, a systematic management system and the corresponding supporting research and monitoring means should be provided to make known the program’s conditions, results and applicable scope in a comprehensive, systematic and complete manner. But, instead of whole process management, current management is limited to technical assessment after program completion.
（6）A national environmental technology innovation system with businesses as the main players is yet to be created
Environmental technology development in China largely relies on specialized colleges and universities and institutes. Over the past years, domestic environmental engineering firms have grown rapidly with improved strength in capital and technology. However, they are too preoccupied with undertaking projects to devote any resources, technological or economic, to development. That explains, in part, why China still has to import some core technologies and key equipment. Besides, these firms have not established a technology innovation system; and most users, averse to the possible localization risks, require procurement of a certain proportion of foreign equipment. All these lead to the low localization rate of environmental engineering equipment. The low rate directly affects China’s environmental protection technology development, which, in turn, makes localization more difficult.
Ⅱ. Environmental Technology Innovation: International Experience
2.1 Measures and Experience of the European Union （EU）in Pushing Forward Environmental Technology Innovation
The European consumers are increasingly concerned about environment and health. The EU has become a leading manufacturer and exporter by encouraging consumers to buy green products, which lead to more stringent environmental standards, and by promoting environmental technologies which have boosted the competitive advantages of some sectors （e.g., power generation, photoelectricity, wind energy, water management techniques and treatment）.
The Environmental Technologies Action Plan （ETAP）adopted by the European Commission on January 28, 2004 aims to harness all potential to reduce pressure on natural resources, improve the quality of life of European citizens and stimulate economic growth. ETAP complements EU’s sustainable development strategy and supports the Lisbon strategy and is therefore ready to be adopted by developing countries. The EU encourages adoption of advanced environmental technologies in each investment and makes corresponding target decisions. These measures will further expand market and lower cost and are supposed to be jointly implemented by the commission, member states, research bodies, organizations, industries and communities.
The objective of ETAP is to eliminate obstacles, develop environmental technologies in an all-dimensional manner, protect environment, promote competitiveness and economic growth; to ensure the EU in the forthcoming period to become a leading force in the development and introduction of environmental technologies in the developing world; and to mobilize all the involved parties to actively participate in this plan. To better implement the plan, EU has studied the three key points of environmental technologies: from development to market, improvement of conditions for market operation and global actions.
Given the worldwide economic growth and pressure on natural resources, existing technologies are not, in the longer term, adequate to safeguard sustainable development. The Action Plan puts forward actions to attract more private and public investment for the development and demonstration of environmental technologies. The actions aim to improve the innovation process and to take inventions out of laboratories and onto the market.
EU has made two initiatives of creating technology platforms and test networks, with an intention of understanding how to establish public-private partnerships and how to bring research closer to the market. A technology platform brings together all the interested stakeholders to build a long-term vision to develop and promote a specific technology or solve particular issues. EU decided to build two environmental technology platforms for hydrogen, fuel cells and photovoltaics in the first half of 2004 and technology platforms for water supply and sanitation in early 2005. These platforms are built on projects with environment, economic and social benefits.
Test of environmental technologies inures to verification of the performance of innovative technologies and to the protection of human heath and environmental safety. The establishment of networks of testing centers makes the information consistent and comparable and assessment parameters reliable.
2.2 Measures and Experience of the US in Pushing Forward Environmental Technology innovation
The Environmental Protection Integration （EPI）initiated by the US aims to integrate the environmental concerns into the existing departments, related policies, organizational arrangement and power structures.
Development of EPI experienced four stages, from reliance on the state governments to federal regulation, further to support for sustainable development. EPI as a policy tool has been widely adopted across the US.
Apart from having spent substantial funds over decades in developing environmental technologies, the US government has put great emphasis on partnership with businesses and research bodies. A case in point is the Advanced Technology Plan （ATP）carried out by the Department of Commerce in 1990-1999, which covered the technological field of energy and environment. Implementation of the Plan involved the US government, research bodies as well as private businesses, which contributed over half of the total investment and were entitled to use the technological results derived from the Plan. This method not only leveraged funds from more diverse sources but also promoted technology application. What’s more, the US government has set great store by research cooperation between various departments. The （Environmental Protection Agency）EPA-led cooperation plan in 1994 which was designed to enhance technology sharing among departments facilitated the application of environmental technologies in various sectors. The national environmental technology strategy unveiled in 1995 aimed to guide, coordinate and push forward the development, application and commercialization of environmental technologies.
The Environmental Technology Verification Program （ETV）initiated by EPA verifies the performance of environmental innovative technologies. ETV greatly accelerates the entrance of environmental technologies into the domestic and international marketplaces. Created in October 1995, ETV carries out assessment of performance of environmental technologies （air, water, soil, ecosystem, waste, pollution prevention and monitoring）as a public-private partnership. ETV efforts are guided by the technology purchasers and vendors, license holders, consulting engineers, financiers and exporters in particular technology sectors. Vendors of all kinds of technologies may apply for verification. All the test/quality assurance plans require the joint participation of technological experts and applicants, and update is subject to peer review or test. Immediately after a technology has been verified, all the related test procedures, performance reports and verification statements will be published on the ETV website. Execution of ETV quality management plan （compatible with the quality standards recognized by the US and internationally）assures the highest data quality.
Starting in April 2004, ETV conducted four surveys: consumer satisfaction with ETV website, ETV’s impact on the sales volume of environmental technologies, degree of technology innovation, and the purchasing power for the verified technologies and adoption of such technologies in decision-making process. The first survey was conducted in February 2004 while the latter three ones were carried out from 2005 to 2006. By far, 272 technologies have been verified.
Ⅲ. Environment-friendly National Innovation System（NIS）: a New Model
Building of a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society necessitates pursuit of a sustainable development road that is of high technical content, well performing, consumes few resources and causes little pollution. But how to deal with the lack of initiatives to innovate during the process as well as the underlying causes? How to deal with the failures of governments, markets and systems that are commonly seen throughout the process? Only by combining NIS with sustainable development can we establish a new technology-economy model featuring resource-efficiency and environment-friendliness.
The education systems of China and many other parts of the world focus on training people with highly specialized skills. It is often the case that these specialists are trained to a level of expertise that does not permit them to be creative. The concept of creativity as a key to innovation needs to be introduced into the universities and colleges of China. This may take some radical restructuring.
Another aspect would be to establish a national network of centers, with the task of assessing all current situations affecting the environment on a continuous basis, and monitor the developments towards the target conditions for improvements with the overall objective of reaching a status of excellence which is a prerequisite for taken the global lead.
3.1 Building of an Environment-friendly Society Requires the NIS to be geared with sustainable development
A NIS is an institutional arrangement whereby technologies are integrated into the economic growth process. The core of the system is to, on the basis of interactions among the technology developers, disseminators and users and government bodies, create a favorable mechanism under which technology and information flows and is applied throughout the society. The system in reality is manifested as a network of businesses, universities and government bodies in a nation, who, focusing on technological development, create an interactive network mechanism, under which, all players carry out a variety of technological, commercial, legal, social and financial activities to develop, protect, support and regulate new technologies.
It is generally held that a NIS primarily consists of businesses, research institutes, research-oriented universities and colleges, general education institutions, public labs, intermediaries and others innovation-related government bodies. The core elements of them are businesses as the main player of innovation, research bodies and research-oriented universities and colleges as the technology suppliers, education, training and intermediary organizations as the major force for technology transfer and diffusion. The relations among these elements have a direct bearing on the information flow within the NIS. The governments as the coordinating bodies in the system and a nation’s financial system, history and culture, which constitute the basic ecological environment for NIS operation, have a direct impact on the system’s operation performance. The NIS setup refers to the framework of the relationships among the parts involved in technology and information flow. The core of the NIS is the interaction among the developers, users and disseminators of technologies. Other factors actually function as the conditions or background for the NIS. There are two core issues: information flow and system failure.
First, from approach of NIS, it is not enough to just have resource-efficient and environment-friendly technologies and what is of real importance is the flow and wide application of technologies among players.
Second, the external factors that influence the efforts to build an environment-friendly society through environmental technology innovation include not only the institutional guarantee and financial system, as provided by the Chinese government, but also historical and cultural factors that are hardwired in the people’s ideology. Therefore, technology innovation aside, it is also necessary to initiate social innovation to create social and cultural environments that encourage all players （governments, businesses and citizens）to actively adopt environment-friendly technologies.
Third, environmental technology innovation is plagued by the failures of markets, governments and systems. The key for creating institutional innovation that is favorable to environmental technology innovation is ideological innovation which leads to innovative social transformation.
The NIS under the guidance of the scientific development outlook is an institutional system that fully reflects the values of natural resources and ecology. It is also a sound development mode under which the economic reproduction is organically connected with natural reproduction. By allowing the sustainable development to be based on technology innovation, this mode greatly promotes the sustainable development of the human society. The NIS guided by the scientific development outlook is reflected in the following three aspects:
（1）“Green” technology innovation. Efforts to develop environmental technologies should be strengthened to ensure that the supply meet the requirements of socioeconomic development. Environmental requirements should be proposed for all the research development activities through assessment from the perspective of environment-friendliness. Judgment of technological programs should take into full consideration their environmental values, rather than merely economic values.
（2）“Green” institutional arrangements. Related systems should be designed to encourage the diffusion and application of green technologies. These include systems for encouraging businesses to carry out environmental technology innovation and take environmental technologies to the market, to enable them to consume fewer resources, produce less pollution, reduce environmental costs and enhance competitiveness; systems for encouraging social organizations and members to actively adopt environment-friendly technologies and products; and systems for realizing win-win of economy and environment on a broader level.
（3）“Green” economic and social management. The governments’ functions should be “green”, which means economic functions are combined with environmental protection functions. The scientific development outlook requires us to base ourselves on a system that is conducive to the constant environmental technology innovation. Under the system, environmental technologies flow and are applied among the technology developers, disseminators and users and governments; under the system, a sound internal mechanism that enables environmental technologies to facilitate sustainable social and economic development gradually emerges.
3.2 NIS Guided by the Scientific Development Outlook Needs to Overcome Failures
A general view of the status quo of China’s environmental technology innovation system reveals market, system and government failures for technology innovation. As the demand of social development for a “green” NIS becomes increasingly urgent, the adverse impact of these problems appears ever more pronounced.
（1）Market failures. Generally, the majority of environmental technology innovation is not likely to directly get equitable economic returns or compensation from the market for the time being, largely due to the current systems and mechanisms. Considering the long lead time and large investment of environmental technologies, the businesses that seek short-term profits are unwilling to invest much in such programs. Besides, inputs by the Chinese government are too limited to remedy these failures. As a result, in its transmission process towards a society featuring harmony between man and nature, China lacks the fundamental technological support.
The reasons for market failure are that: （a）under the incomplete socialist market system, businesses are not established as the main players of environmental technology innovation. The businesses, therefore, do not feel motivated to echo the government’s voice, leading to limited directions of innovation; （b）the markets for technological results transfer and transformation are still underdeveloped and other related technical and financial markets have just been developed; （c）the nature of environmental technology innovation makes the failures more prominent. The demands of environmental technological research and supply of results are, to a large extent, decided by the government, instead of the market. But in drawing up policies, regulations and standards, the government rarely considers the response of the market from the aspects of economy and benefit; （d）management and decision-making still follow administrative orders, rather than guided by the concept of market economy; （e）lax law enforcement is rather prevalent, making acting within the law more expensive than acting against the law. The lack of motivation to adopt environmental technologies gives rise to a vicious circle.
It is difficult to establish businesses as the main players of environmental technology innovation efforts in the absence of an appropriate institutional guarantee. Businesses, as the main players in the market, are primarily driven by prospects of profits, without which, they are unmotivated. If businesses are unenthusiastic about environmental innovation, the research personnel will feel unenthusiastic as well. Because if there is no market demand, results are unable to be translated into productive force and to realize values and bring returns from the market. The research personnel are then unlikely to gear their innovation efforts towards the needs of businesses or to give much attention to results transformation. They never even give any thought to whether there will be a market potential at all in the course of innovation. The important guarantee and prerequisite for environmental technology innovation is to put in place commercial systems, measures and platforms, and to remove the obstacles to commercialization in the course of technological development, diffusion and application.
（2）System failures. If interactions between industrial sectors and universities and research bodies and between government bodies and businesses are impeded, untoward situations will result. For technology developers, they will see results pileup and a level of profits that is insufficient to sustain the necessary follow-up investment. For technology users, they will not be able to access the leading-edge technologies to replace the backward ones that they have used for a long time. Eventually their demands for environmental technology innovation are diluted. These situations not only result in serious waste of social resources, but also dampen the enthusiasm of technological suppliers and users, putting shackles on the long-term development of environmental technology innovation.
（a）Disconnections exist between industrial or specialized departments and technological authorities and between different industrial departments that are related to environmental resource management and innovation. The different administrative authorities inevitably give rise to selfish departmentalism. It is a rather common phenomenon that different stages of an environmental issue are managed by different departments, which, without clearly defined responsibilities, are often locked in disputes and even conflicts with each other. The technological authorities have different opinions and judgments on environmental technology innovation from the industrial departments, because of their different interests. The industrial departments largely proceed from the perspective of solving the actual problems that they currently face and their understanding of the demand for environmental innovation are relatively practical; whereas the technological authorities usually comprehensively balance the resource distribution throughout the course of innovation, with activities that are related to industrial development being emphasized over environmental protection and other public interest.
（b）Fragmented management systems restrict innovation efforts. The intrinsic nature of environmental issues requires systematic and comprehensive innovation. But in China, technological system and business management system are fragmented, leading to a lack of coordination as to the targets, process and management.
This situation affects the efforts to work around the comprehensive and systematic environmental problems. Plus, environmental polices formulated in different stages are inconsistent, causing a large amount of repetitive work and serious waste. In China, less than 20% of environmental technological results have been translated into productive force and no more than 5% have formed industry scale; whereas in the developed countries, such as the US and Japan and other, the two figures are over 80% and over 30%[4] respectively. Statistics show that China sees an average of 2-3 new environmental protection technologies every day and a total of about 800 every year, but only 10%[5] of them are extended and applied.
（c）Innovation efforts are not systematic. Internal relationships between environmental technologies, e.g., those between the environment and energy, between water resource and water pollution, between industry and agriculture, and between local factors and holistic factors, require innovation-related activities be considered as a whole. It is important to form the concepts of regions and river basins. China’s environmental problems are structural, complex, cumulative and holistic. Its environmental dilemma is closely related to the history of its economic and social development, and is the result of problems of different periods stacking up. It is attributable to the erroneous development concepts, and to human mistakes. Thus it is technically impossible to determine which government in which period should be held accountable. And it is also impossible to make the polluter pay by simply separating responsibilities. Solution of the environment problems necessitates the efforts of the central government. Under this context, the current innovation activities are not systematic.
Take, for example, the impact of foreign capital on China’s efforts to build an environment-friendly society. On the one hand, China tries to attract foreign direct investment （FDI）through various forms and levels of policy incentives; on the other hand, a large percentage of FDI that has flowed into the nation goes to pollution-intensive businesses in the secondary industry, which, deemed as “marginal businesses” in the developed nations, account for 84.19% the total businesses that have received FDI. So, it is certain that FDI contributes considerably to pollution. According to the data of the third national industrial census, most of ozone depleting substances （ODS）were produced and consumed by foreign-invested businesses. Many a foreign-invested business takes advantage of the local government’s anxiety to develop economy to exploit the loopholes in the environment-related laws and regulations.
（3）Government failures. Currently, how and by what means environmental technologies are managed still follow orders. Governments work out related regulations and standards and require businesses and other economic entities to follow. Under socialist market economy, the involvement of the market diversifies interests. Even the interests of local and central governments do not always agree, for they inevitably base their decisions on their respective maximum interests. The current environmental legal system and the status of law enforcement don’t motivate businesses to consciously meet the requirements of environmental regulations. In an ideal scenario, environmental regulations standards would be stringent and laws would be strictly enforced. Businesses would pay far more for causing pollution in violation of the law than they would for acting according to the regulations and standards, or they would get far more from control than they would spend. Such being the case, the businesses would actively seek every technology possible to lower their pollution control costs. The strong market demand would then push forward the related innovation activities, which, in turn, would be able to generate returns from the market. But the problem is how to make regulations and standards achieve such results. At present at least, it is something impossible, since decisions will have to be supported by information of businesses, obtaining of such information, although theoretically possible, entails huge costs and difficulties. So far, governments have adopted a host of regulations, policies and incentives and carried out promotion and education activities with the aim of promoting technology flow and application and improving the situation where inputs are limited and production, research and education are disconnected- but the results are unsatisfactory.
This shows that only by providing corresponding organizational guarantee and pushing forward system reform, can the obstacles to the efforts to build a NIS that is guided by the scientific development outlook be surmounted. The existing organizational systems must be reformed and a system must be created which allows environmental technologies to flow among the developers, disseminators and users. All social organizations and members, including governments, businesses, universities and colleges, research institutes, intermediaries and individuals, should be involved in the process. Businesses should always be a main force in the creation of NIS, and governments should be responsible for remedy market and system failures. Governments should establish a good system framework and implement effective measures to make every social organization and member consciously spread and use environmental technologies. In an environment-friendly society, the harmony between man and nature will be stable and long-lasting.
3.3 The government is a key force behind the sustainable national system of innovation
Participants in the NIS include businesses, governmental research institutes, universities, colleges and technological organizations and intermediaries. The linchpin of facilitating the creation of a NIS that is guided by scientific development outlook is to enable these participants to interact in a sound manner so as to promote the flow and application of environmental technologies. In this process, the government plays a critical role.
（1）Support businesses to become the major player in technology innovation.
If and how businesses as the major player can boost environmental technology innovation depends, to a large extent, on the government’s guidance and stimulation. To provide guidance and stimulation, the government should actively invest in development and effectively utilize the existing domestic and foreign achievements. It should provide necessary conditions, improve environment and deepen reform, to encourage and invigorate businesses to engage in innovation and international cluster innovation. To be specific, it should （a）provide guidance by formulating related economic and technological policies to make businesses become the major investor for innovation; （b）change its current manner to support businesses to undertake national research and development tasks; （c）improve the technological transfer mechanism to support technology integration and application by businesses; （d）help accelerate the creation of a modern corporate system to boost the internal dynamic of businesses for technology innovation; and （e）create an enabling environment for the innovation activities of small and medium sized enterprises.
（2）Stimulate environmental technology innovation through financial policies.
Financial supporting policies are the most directly and widely adopted policy tool by the world’s governments, which function as the rectifier of market failures, to encourage technology innovation. Detailed means include direct subsidy, tax incentives and government procurement. The Chinese government should, by making reference to the international experience and taking into consideration China’s own conditions, use its enormous government resources to design a green financial policy package that is sustainable and effective, to encourage domestic technology innovation and international cluster innovation. It should encourage and guide businesses to, under the concept of green operation, take the initiative to invest in development and try to adopt green technologies. It should encourage the large businesses with capital or technology strengths to actively carry out environmental technology innovation in response to the environment that promotes the development of green industries. It should support businesses to strengthen education of their employees, making them realize that technology innovation has a direct bearing on the sustainable development of businesses and the society as a whole. Therefore, they will consciously promote and safeguard the green images of businesses in the course of production operations.
（3）Pool strengths to create a financing mechanism for environmental technology innovation.
New environmental technologies are characterized by large inputs, long lead time and low profits. Considering this, development cannot rely solely on the funds provided by the government or depend entirely on the spontaneous workings of the market. Rather, we should pool the strengths of both sides to create a new mechanism. On the one hand, the government should provide funds to create a dedicated financing channel for businesses carrying out technology innovation and allocate more of its special environmental funds as loan subsidy and loan discount for these businesses. On the other hand, social capitals should be attracted to build a commercial financing support mechanism. For instance, financial bodies dedicated to such businesses can be established by way of borrowing, providing guarantee, issuing corporate bonds and shares and absorbing private capital, to compensate for the absence of institutions when businesses try to get funds for innovation.
（4）Create an intellectual property rights protection system that encourages environmental technology innovation through laws and regulations.
According to the Paris Convention as well as the patent compulsory license system under the TRIPS Agreement, in order to protect the environment and prevent and eliminate environmental pollution, the advanced environmental technologies of developed countries may be used under a compulsory license system. China should broaden the applicable scope of the Law on Environment Impact Assessment which only applies to planning and construction projects to cover the intellectual property rights system, particularly patented and unpatented technologies. It should introduce a self-assessment system; produce more and better environmental protection laws, regulations and standards; step up law enforcement; and popularize environmental education to enhance the public’s awareness.
（5）Green assessment for technological activities.
When research institutions and firms or institutions of higher learning, try to introduce their new technology into use, all should be assessed for technology ethics. Clear conclusions should be provided as to the social and environmental impact that may result from related technological activities or results, to serve as the basis for project approval.
Ⅳ. Push Forward Environmental Technology Innovation: Foresight and Realization
China is experiencing accelerated industrialization and urbanization and at the same time witnessing pronounced conflicts between economic growth and environmental protection. The overall environmental situation in the nation remains grim. In some regions, the serious environmental pollution and ecological deterioration goes unchecked; the discharge of major pollutants surpasses the carrying capacity of the environment; water, land and soil are seriously polluted; pollution by solid waste, vehicle exhaust gases and persistent organic pollutants increases. In the first two decade of the new century, China will see a continuous population growth and the GDP quadruple from the level of 2000. The very greater demands of the economic and social development for resources will put increasing pressure on environmental protection.
4.1 Bottlenecks Placed by the Environment and Resources Become More Severe, Pollution Aggravates.
Although on a per capita basis, the energy and resource utilization rate is low, the total energy and resources utilization is extremely high, discharge of major pollutants has exceeded the carrying capacity of the environment. Worse still, pollution and damage has spread from land to offshore, from surface to underground, and from single to combined. Industrial structure pollution is spatially showing a pattern of gradient transfer and change. In some key economic regions and river basins, point source pollution, line source pollution and non-point source pollution co-exist, domestic and production pollution stacks up, new and old pollutants are mixed, pollution of water, air and soil mutually influences, and safety of nuclear and radio environment is under threat.
4.2 Harm Caused by New Pollutants and Persistent Organic Pollutants is Increasingly Visible
Some new pollutants, like antibiotics, endocrine disrupting chemicals, algae toxins, pesticide oxidation degradates, pose a larger, longer and more unpredictable threat to the ecosystem, food safety and human health. Persistent organic pollutants are causing greater harm.
In addition to detrimental national hazards, these problems are starting to have a negative effect on export products.
4.3 Ecological and Environmental Problems Become More Complex and Bring More Risks
Social stability and the environment are increasingly imperiled by such problems as eutrophic lake and inshore water, regional acid deposition, combined air pollution, soil pollution and non-point source pollution, harmful and toxic pollutants, regional （river basin）ecosystem degradation, biodiversity reduction, alien species invasion, genetic resource loss and environmental emergencies.
Facing the mounting pressure on resources and the environment, the government puts forward that we should uphold the scientific approach in achieving economic and social development, accelerate the building of a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society and promote the harmonious development of man and nature. The government has placed resources saving and environmental protection in an important strategic position as it works out the country's development goals. The fundamental tasks of environmental technology innovation are to build an environment-friendly society and, while ameliorating the overall environment, to realize sustainable and rapid economic growth.
4.4 Create radical innovation laboratories for intensified research for a more harmonious life.
Appealing physical and virtual places （experimentarium）for modern living should be established, based on a substantial reduction of non-renewable resources. A place, or places, which would attract Chinese and international scientists, researchers, PHD students, designers, architects, artists, philosophers, politicians and business people to meet, work and study how to approach sustainable development from different perspectives based on a profound understanding of the ecological system on planet earth.
Target what the world could come to look like as it alienates the cycles of nature. Understand how materials flow. Utilize materials over and over again. A place that shows the world that it is possible to live with a high standard of living and yet have no waste since everything is utilized. Establish cross disciplinary and cross cultural collaborative projects in almost every activity humans are performing. Focus on what is really needed and why, away from superfluous lifestyles. Identify large projects which need the contributions of several countries. China provides ecological conditions with enormous diversity; hence it would be beneficial to roll out such projects in China as global pilot demonstrations.
China’s future environmental technology demands:
Facing the mounting pressure on resources and the environment, the government has put forward strategy of upholding scientific development outlook in achieving economic and social development, accelerating the building of a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society and promoting the harmonious development of man and nature. If China wants to solve the environmental problems that it may encounter in its future development, it must build a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society. To achieve this important goal, we should fully exploit the existing technologies to boost environmental technology innovation. We should focus on and strengthen the development of technologies in the key areas of an environment-friendly society, areas such as human health, food safety, pollution control, comprehensive resource utilization, advanced intelligent traffic design for cities, design of energy-saving architecture, new energy development and utilization, biodiversity protection, rural eco-environment protection, marine ecology protection, recovery and restoration of degraded ecosystem, protection and enhancement of fragile ecosystem. It is also important to put in place a NIS that promotes environmental protection.
China, as a responsible power, not only works to solve the environmental problems that it encounters in the course of its development, but also seeks to contribute to a better global environment. China has participated in the international cooperation in almost all fields. It has set targets for energy conservation and greenhouse gas emissions reduction for the 11th five-year plan period. The nation will, as required by the scientific development outlook, include the combat of climate change, implementation of the sustainable development strategy, acceleration of the building of a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society as part of the overall and regional plans for national economic and social development. It will enhance its abilities to combat climate change and perform the international conventions by driving forward the research and development in the key areas of climate change, stepping up the creation of a climate monitoring system, and developing global climate change monitoring technologies, greenhouse gas emissions reduction technologies and climate change adaptation technologies （low carbon emission technologies）.
China’s near-term and future demands for environmental technologies are-
（1）Medium and long term demands:
A comprehensive analysis of China’s social and economic development trend in the light of its medium and long term plan for science and technology development shows that the nation’s environmental technology development in the next 10-15 years will be chiefly in the following aspects:
l Guide and support the development of recycling development. Develop integrated cleaner production technologies for pollution-heavy sectors; enhance waste reduction, reclamation and safe disposal; and step up research on common technologies for the recycling economy.
l Provide comprehensive treatment of regional environment. Implement technology integration and demonstration for comprehensive treatment of river basin water environment pollution and regional atmospheric environment pollution, and for comprehensive treatment of typical degraded ecological function zones; develop technologies for guaranteeing the safety of drinking water and for environmental monitoring and early warning; and greatly increase support for the development of technologies that have the potential to improve the environmental quality.
l Promote the development of the environmental protection industry. Focus on the research of environmental protection equipment, instrument and facilities that are suitable for China; expand the market share of domestic environmental protection products; and raise the level of environmental protection equipment and technologies.
l Actively participate in the international environmental cooperation. Strengthen studies on measures for the implementation of global environmental conventions, and on uncertainties of climate change science and the resultant impact; develop technologies for monitoring global environmental changes and for cutting down greenhouse gas emissions; and enhance capacities for responding to environmental changes and for implementation.
（2）Priorities:
Comprehensive pollution control and waste recycling: Focus on the development of regional environment quality monitoring and early warning technologies; develop key technologies, like the technology for controlling city-cluster air pollution; develop unconventional pollutant control technologies; waste reclamation technologies, integrated cleaner production technologies for pollution-heavy sectors, and establish a technological demonstration mode for developing the recycling economy.
Rehabilitation and restoration of ecosystem functions of the fragile ecological areas: Focus on the development of dynamic monitoring technologies for ecosystems of such typical fragile ecological areas as karst terrains, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River, Loess Plateau, desert, desertified land, agriculture-animal husbandry zones and mining areas; technologies for controlling grassland degradation and rat damage; ecosystem rehabilitation and restoration technologies; technologies for protection and rehabilitation of ecology along the Three Gorges Project and Qinghai-Tibet Railway Project and in the complex mining areas; build technical support models for rehabilitation and constant improvement of different ecosystem functions; and design systems for comprehensive assessment of ecosystem functions and for technological evaluation.
Marine ecology and environment protection: Focus on the development of marine ecology and environment monitoring technologies and equipment ; strengthen research on technologies for marine ecology and environment protection; develop technologies for protection and restoration of offshore ecology and environment and for dealing with emergencies at sea; and develop high- precision technologies for forecasting dynamic marine environmental data.
Global environmental change monitoring and measures: Focus on the development of technologies for accurate monitoring of large-scale environmental changes; technologies for control, disposal and utilization of such greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide and methane discharged by major sectors; biotechnology for carbon sequestration and carbon sequestration engineering technologies; and conduct studies on measures for combating climate change, biodiversity protection, ozone layer protection, and persistent organic pollutants control.
Ⅴ. NIS-based Environment-friendly Society: Institutional Realization
Effective social management provides the basis for a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society. If China is to build such a society, it has to complete basic social engineering of basing its environmental technology innovation efforts on reliable institutional guarantee and social management structure, by pushing forward social innovation through planned institutional innovation and social management system reform, in the next 10-15 years which constitute a key period for the nation’s dramatic social transformation.
Building of an environment-friendly society requires creation of a NIS under the guidance of the scientific development outlook.
5.1 Institutional innovation
To build the system, it is necessary to （1）improve the statutory tax system that encourages technology supply and adjust the government’s functions; （2）improve the market system that is oriented toward environmental technology innovation, particularly, allow businesses to play a bigger role as the major player of innovation; use government procurement policies; （3）innovate the social management system; （4）encourage ideological innovation. The ultimate goal of environmental technology innovation is to create a society-wide system that promotes environmental technology innovation, technology supply, sharing and application.
5.2 Innovation of social management system is the guarantee
The objective of stimulating the population at large to be environmentally aware is very important. The leadership should show why this is important, and show the population that they can take pride in seeing China work to become a global environmental leader. Is it possible that regional levels of government could be encouraged to demonstrate that they can take the lead to compete with each other to be the best environmental jurisdiction? This will in the long run ensure that they can also be the most economically successful. What this means is that in the context of “It’s glorious to be rich”, it is necessary to be environmentally friendly if the objective of being rich is to be sustained
Innovation in the social management system means to create an environment and atmosphere suitable for constant innovation of environmental technology through re-allocation of social resources, thus to encourage all organizations and members of the whole society to voluntarily participate in the creation, application and popularity of energy-saving and environmental protection technologies.
1. Give full play to the basic roles of the community.
Community is the cell of the society, and also one of the basic units of society. As for construction of resource-efficient and environment-friendly society, we, first of all, are required to build the community into “environment-friendly community”. Traditionally, China has laid less emphasis upon the concept of the community, and the social management function of grassroots communities. Instead, China has exercised supervision and management over grassroots through registered permanent residence. Along with the transformation of social structure and changes of social management system, the community is becoming a network for social management, public service and social support which may replace the "units". In implementation of social welfare, social relief, social charity, occupational support, public security, family planning, health services, judicial correction, environmental protection, grassroots mediation of social disputes, and life services, the community is playing increasingly active roles.
2. Active action of social groups.
In order to achieve an environment-friendly society, it is not only necessary to set up environment-friendly social groups, but also to bring full play to linking the roles of social groups, which may absorb all social forces such as enterprises, relevant governmental departments, institutes, and colleges and universities to build the environment-friendly society. China has a large number of social groups, with rational layout and constantly-optimized structures, and the scope of their businesses covers science and technology, education, culture, public health, labor, civil affairs, sports, environmental protection, legal services, social intermediary services, and rural special economy, so social groups have already become an important force to build environment-friendly socialism. Up to the end of 2006, there have been 192,000 social groups nationwide, up by 12.3% compared with that of the previous year.
The participation of all social members is fundamental to successfully build the environment-friendly society, and for all social members, the important way to participate in community construction is joining non-governmental organizations such as social groups. In this way, all social members may exchange and talk with the government, and then make decisions[6]. This can create a favorable environment and conditions for building environment-friendly society. Besides, industry associations can unite relevant enterprises together to complement each other, form an integrated composite force and scaled economy. Enterprises will share the risks and profits together, greatly enhancing the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises in domestic and international markets, and also boosting the industrialization of green technological achievements made by enterprises and institutes. By guiding, service, self-discipline, coordinating and supervising roles, the social groups may maintain market order and boost fair competition. At the same time, the social groups may take full advantages of prompt information and controlling the overall situation to assist enterprises to resolve difficulties in production.
3. Orderly participation of the public.
The development of environmental protection activities in western countries is inseparable from the active participation of the public. Many environmental issues have been gradually resolved as the public, especially those who suffer from the environmental hazards as well as environmentalists. Some groups who suffer from environmental hazards have launched a series of environmental protection campaigns. Such moves have often made the government to legislate environmentally and take management measures. China's environmental protection has been dominated strongly by the government, so it is worth studying how to reflect people's will in the process of technological innovation. Green and environmental protections are not only matters for the government, but also for people’s living and production. Therefore, it is necessary to include environmental protection awareness into technological innovation. Only in this way can we achieve sustained economic and social development. The most typical and effective event is that in April 2005, the State Environmental Protection Administration （SEPA）held the first public hearing on Yuanmingyuan’s anti-seepage project; In February 2006, the Provisional Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment （EIA）were issued. Meanwhile, the higher specification and broader coverage of Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Protection have also been under legislation. Public higher participation in environmental protection is closely related to the environmental policies and people’s daily life, and also to rapid development of environmental NGO. During the process of public participation, NGO may converge public opinions and then form policy gaming capacity.
Attention should be paid to the Blue Planet Prize most recently awarded for drafting environmental laws that support citizen action for the protection of the environment. As for public participation in system of technological innovation, the public shall have the right to inquire and supervise projects that damage the environment. They shall have the right and channels to obtain ecological technology. Public supervisory systems include public announcement, hearing system, mass reporting system, police and people joint supervision system under EIA, as well as public opinion system for civil green organizations and public media. We should, through public education, training and publicity, mobilize the public to carry out direct and grassroots-orientated supervision, so as to promote the development of technological innovation for ecology.
Ⅵ. Overall Strategy and Preliminary Actions
Construction of a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society is a strategic move to implement the scientific view of development, and also necessary requirements to enhance the independent innovation capability and build an innovative nation. A resource-efficient and environment-friendly society shall be constructed based upon technological innovation, so first of all, we should adopt the scientific view of development to guide the construction of national innovation system. In doing so, we objectively need to adjust China's environmental developing strategy, so that technological innovation may truly become the main driving force and fundamental basis to build the environment-friendly society. In addition, the environment-friendly society of China must be the way along with Chinese characteristics. As China is in the development stage, characterized by large population and scarce resources, so China's environment-friendly road will reflect Chinese characteristics.
On this basis, we put forward the following policy suggestions for achieving the environment-friendly society through innovation:
6.1 Action for system failure
1. The State will strengthen the guidance, support and supervision on local environmental protection, improve regional environmental supervision agencies, coordinate inter-provincial environmental protection, and focus on the outstanding environmental problems. Local people's governments will be responsible for regional environment quality, supervise the environmental protection of the lower level's governments and environmental action of key units, and establish corresponding regulatory mechanism for environmental protection. Legal persons and other organizations will be responsible for resolving relevant environmental problems. Local people's governments above the county level should strengthen the construction of environmental protection agencies, clearly define the functions, organization and outlay, further summarize and explore the regulatory mode of urban environmental protection agencies, and perfect local environmental management system.
2. In accordance with the regional ecosystem management approach, we will gradually straighten out the division of responsibilities, and enhance the coordination and wholeness of the environmental supervision; establish and perfect environmental supervision system monitored by the State, supervised by the locals and charged by the units. Environmental protection departments at all levels should be strict in implementing various environmental regulatory system, order polluting units to treat within time limit and suspend production for rectification, and convene relevant experts and representatives to put forward the review opinions for EIA of development, construction and planning; improve transfer procedures for environmental crime cases, and coordinate judicial authorities to deal with various environmental cases.
3. Mobilize the central and the local enthusiasm for innovation. It is mainly to mobilize the local enthusiasm, because excessively stringent environmental protection is always inconsistent with the economic development goal of local government. Under normal circumstances, we can see that the Central Government has good policies, but they are not well implemented locally. For instance, the energy consumption of unit GDP shall be reduced by 20% in the "11th Five-Year Plan", and it is required that all provinces shall make great efforts to reduce the energy consumption to a certain extent. If weighing the reduction goals of energy consumption in the "11th Five-Year Plan" proposed by all provinces, we can see that the State’s goal of 20% energy saving cannot be achieved in the "11th Five-Year Plan". However, given that the "11th Five-Year Plan" of each province has legal effect inside the province, and is approved by the people's congress at the provincial level, so under these circumstances, it is worth considering how to set up the binding mechanism for national constraint indicators. Therefore, it is more urgent than R&D of new technologies to rationalize these factors and put these technologies into use.
6.2 Action for market failure
1. We should truly encourage enterprises to become the main body in the construction of environment-friendly society. Enterprise is the main body of environmental technology input; the main body of innovation and decision-making; the main body of bearing risks; and the main body of environmental ethics. All of these have required that enterprises should consciously undertake social responsibilities, promote environmental technological innovation, and develop resource-efficient and environment-friendly enterprises.
2. We should strengthen the R&D and popularity of environmental technology. Energy-saving technology, environmental protection technology and low-carbon energy technology are the basis for environmental technology, so we should increase the investment, and vigorously promote technological cooperation and transfer. Through the government technology program and great efforts of research units, we have made a lot of important technological breakthroughs. However, the lack of commercialization and active enterprises has made it ineffective to popularize new technologies. A large number of new technologies have not been applied in a timely way, and the existing system and incentive measures do not promote long-term innovation of environmental technologies.
3. Popularize and use environmental protection technology in the construction of new countryside.
4. Speed up hi-tech industrialization and popularity of the advanced applicable technologies. Optimized integrating and demonstrating of major environmental pollution control technologies, cleaner production technologies and recycling economy technology to effectively promote the development of innovation of China's environmental protection technologies and industrialization, and accelerate the upgrade of technologies of China's environmental backbone enterprises. The State Environmental Protection Administration will select a batch of enterprises with independent IPRs or the advanced environmental protection technological achievements according to the annual plan to carry out national demonstration projects by adopting fund grants and discount loans on the key demonstration projects, provide preferential policies for the successful environmental technologies, and popularize them throughout the country.
5. System for perfecting government procurement. Thus in the government procurement, the top priority will be given to energy-conserving and environment-friendly technologies and products.
6.3 Action for government failure
1. Achieve the adjustment of governmental functions. The governmental departments shall bear more responsibilities to promote the construction of environment-friendly society, and increase the investment in the development of environmental protection technologies and financial support on transformation of technological achievements.
2. Increase the executive force for various laws and policies in the construction of environment-friendly society.
3. Boost policy coordination. In the process of specific technological innovation and practice, the policy makers often tend to proceed only from their own departments and units, rather than from the overall situation or from problems and goals. The policies formulated, in general, are not consistent. As a result, lack of coordination and the contradictions between policies have become obvious and frequent.
4. Create a radical innovation structure with major funding/incentives. Government should spend more money on innovation in both basic as well as applied environmental science. The new funding can give related institutions more freedom to do radical innovation.
5. Raise the public quality of environmental science. We will launch various green educations throughout the society to raise the public quality of green science and culture as well as green consciousness; implement the Action Plan for All-people Scientific Quality, create a favorable social environment for technological innovation; strengthen innovative education, and cultivate young people’s innovative awareness and capabilities.
6. Actively implement the sustainable development strategy as well as the sustainable consumption policies and action programs for achieving China's sustainable consumption patterns specified in China’s Agenda 21; establish a meaningful consumption view and consumption patterns; open up more publicity channels, make multi-directional and multi-form green publicity, guide green consumption and advocate green lifestyle.
7. Make full use of local and civil advantages to actively launch green civilization creation activities, such as green districts, green communities, green schools, green parks, green cities, and green units, etc., to gradually form the social style of all-people participation in green action.
8. Establish administrative guidance and administrative contract with legal system. Many ecological technologies have been implemented by scattered farmers, herds or fishermen and residents in grassland, farmland, woodland, and rural communities, etc. The land use right and disposition right are decentralized given that the household contract policy has been implemented. In the implementation of technological innovation and ecological results, the administrative agencies should adopt voluntary, beneficial and contractual principles. The administrative guidance and administrative contract are most suitable for the popularity of technological innovation and ecological results. Great importance shall be attached to administrative guidance and administrative contract for environmental protection in China's eco-environment laws, in particular to the indemnificatory measures, such as investment, benefits distribution, risk sharing, preferential policies for rewards and punishments, etc.
[1] China Environment Statistics Bulletin 2006
[2] Ma Kai, Development of Recycling Economy, Building a Resource-efficient and Environment-friendly Society, Qiushi, 16th edition （2005）
[3] He Kaili, Song Jianjun, China Environmental Protection Industry, 7th edition, 2002.
[4] Gu Haibo: Exploration of China’s Legal Incentives for Diffusion of Environmental Technologies, Science & Technology Progress and Policy, 8th edition, 2005.
[5] Xu Wei, Development and Application of Environmental Technologies and Related Property Rights Policies, Decision and Information, 11th edition, 2006
[6] Licheng: “Construction of non-governmental organizations and harmonious community”, Weishi, Jan. 2007