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Study on Strategies for Developing the Pearl River Delta Region into a Green Economy and Resource-Saving Region YE Ping Guangzhou Vocational College of Technology & Business ,Guangzhou, China,511442 [email protected] Abstract: With economic development and population explosion, the conflict between shortage of existing resources and increasing demand is becoming more and more acute. Under such circumstances, the traditional extensive economic growth mode at the expense of resources and environment can hardly support the sustainable economic and social development in the Pearl River Delta Region. Vigorously promoting the development of a green economy and a resource-saving region has become a strategic choice for the development of the Pearl River Delta Region. Key words: Pearl River Delta Region, green economy, resource-saving region, strategies 1 Introduction Since the implementation of reform and opening-up policy, the industrial clusters have experienced rapid development in the Pearl River Delta Region through construction of new plants and introduction of foreign investments based on the unique geographic and human resource advantages, preferential policies and land resources. But rapid development and exploding population have aggravated the conflict between the shortage of existing resources and increasing demand. The traditional extensive economic growth mode at the expense of resources and environment can hardly support the sustainable economic and social development of this region. Now domestic study on the Pearl River Delta Region focuses more on tourism planning, development mode, regional economic cooperation and urbanization while gives little attention to the current status of resource environment and relevant strategies. Given the enormous pressure in population, resources and environment, how to address the resource constraint and environmental pressure to ensure sustainable, rapid, coordinated and healthy economic development in the Pearl River Delta Region, optimize the ecological structure and realize harmonious co-existence between human and the environment is an important subject that merits our consideration. 2 Relationship Between Developing a Green Economy and Building a Resource-Saving Society Green economy is a new form of economy. It is market-oriented, based on traditional industrial economy and aims to achieve harmony between economic development and environmental protection. Green economy is a development stage of the industrial economy to meet environmental protection and health needs. Green economy aims to achieve harmony between economic development and environmental protection. It turns many good-for-environment technologies such as environmental protection technology and clean manufacturing techniques into productivity and realizes sustainable economic growth by adopting economic behaviors that benefit the environment or at least are not harmful to the environment. Building a resource-saving society means increasing resource utilization efficiency by adopting comprehensive measures including legal measures, economic measures and administrative measures in various fields such as production, circulation, consumption, etc. so as to achieve maximum economic and social benefits with minimum resource consumption to ensure sustainable economic and social development. The purpose of building a resource-saving society is to pursue less resource consumption, less environmental pollution and greater economic and social benefits so as to realize sustainable development. Developing green economy is consistent with building a resource-saving society. 990 2.1 Developing Green Economy is a Strategic Choice for Building a Resource-saving City Human society’s economic growth modes can be classified into three categories depending on the resource process mode and environmental effect: The first one is the traditional “three high and one low” economic development mode which features a single-direction linear substance process "resource-product-pollutant discharge". Such a mode often results in shortage or even depletion of natural resources and energy and has caused irreversible environmental pollution. The second one is the “treatment after pollution” process-end treatment mode. Such a mode emphasizes on pollution treatment at the end of the manufacturing process. It often results in high input, high consumption, high discharge, lack of harmony, difficulty in recycling, low efficiency and sometimes even causes new source of pollution and creates vicious cycle. The third one is the circular economy which is also known as green economic development mode, this is an internationally acknowledged strategic mode that best represents sustainable development. This mode features a closed substance feedback process, namely “resource-product-waste-renewable resource” and a “low exploitation, high utilization efficiency, low emission” recycling mode. The characteristics of this mode is the economic system is harmoniously integrated into the substance recycling in the natural ecological system, thus economic activities can be carried out in an ecological manner. From the above analysis, we can see that the traditional industrial economy that contains the first and second mode is characterized by destruction of the ecological balance, over-consumption of energy and resources and harm to human health, it is a consumption-oriented economy. While green economy is a form of economy that aims to safeguard human’s living environment, reasonably protect resources and energy and is good for human health, it is a balanced economy. As an economic growth mode that fully represents the value of natural resources and ecological value, green economy aims to foster a new economic mindset from the manufacturing field to the consumption field in order to realize full use of resources and recycling of substances. Developing green economy fully meets the requirements of building a resource-saving society and is certain to become the strategic choice for building a resource-saving society. 2.2 The Process of Building a Resource-saving Society is a Process of Developing Economy with “Green Economy” Mindset The core of a resource-saving society is use-economy, which requires reduced demand for resources and energy during economic operation, which means during the process of resources utilization (before, during and after utilization), create equal or even greater amount of wealth with the least possible amount of resources and energy (or renewable resources) and utilize various kinds of wastes to the largest extent. This is consistent with the three basic principles of green economy (3R principle), namely Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. “Reduce” applies to the input end and aims to reduce the flow of substance and energy into the manufacturing and consumption process. “Reuse” applies to the process and aims to extend the time intensity of products and services. “Recycle” applies to the output end and requires the conversion of substance into renewable resources which then return to the start of the process for re-use after completing their use functions, thus achieving sustained, repeated and recyclable utilization of resources. The above analysis shows that the process of building a resource-saving society is a process of developing the economy with the “green economy” mindset. 3 Importance and Urgency of Developing the Pearl River Delta Region into a Green Economy and a Resource-saving Society With economic development and the progress of urbanization, destruction and wasting of resources has become an appalling phenomenon in the Pearl River Delta Region, which, combined with the traditional extensive economic growth mode, is increasingly constraining further economic development in the Pearl River Delta Region. 3.1 Lack of Sufficient Land Resources Vital for Survival and Development The Pearl River Delta Region takes its land resources as capital and seized the opportunity of Hong Kong’s industrial transfer by raising funds to build for-rent plants and completed the transformation 991 from a traditional agricultural economy to a modern industrial economy. The Pearl River Delta Region only has a land area of 41,700 km2. At present there is only limited land available for development, which makes land as expensive as gold. In 2005, GDP/km2 in the Pearl River Delta Region reached RMB 43,310,000 Yuan, which was 3.5 times that of Guangdong Province (RMB 12,480,000 Yuan). In some cities like Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, etc, almost no land is available for large-scale development. By 2007, the majority of land in cities and towns were industrial land. Limited availability of remaining land resources and yet-to-be-improved land administration resulted in very low utilization efficiency and consequently great waste. This to some extent constrains the further development of the Pearl River Delta Region whose main source of income is renting of plants. 3.2 Aggravating Environmental Pollution The Pearl River Delta Region enjoys sufficient rainfall and has densely-distributed river networks, which ensures rich water resources. The Pearl River Delta Region is one of the districts in China with rich water resources. Its per capita fresh water resource is 16042m3, 6.9 times that of per capita figure nationwide and 1.5 times of per capita figure worldwide[1]. But due to lack of far-sighted and coordinated economic, resources and environmental planning and absence of effective and concentrated administration of river basins, water bodies in this region are facing severe pollution which threatens the safety of the water source of the city. The region is highly developed in terms of industrialization, which results in discharge of large amounts of industrial waste water and domestic sewage. 64% of the industrial pollutants and 74% of domestic sewage generated in Guangdong Province flow to the Pearl River Delta Region. At present, over 2 billion tons of sewage is discharged every year, along with 1.8 million tons of solid industrial wastes and 3 million tons of domestic wastes. Township enterprises are developing rapidly in this region. Of over 7000 town and village-level enterprises rated as “Grade-II Polluters”, over 6000 are distributed in the Pearl River Delta Region. These enterprises are small and scattered and generally lack effective sewage treatment facilities, thus a large amount of sewage flows into rivers. Pollution sources in urban and rural areas have formed an extensive and intertwined pollution network. More and more cities and towns are facing the shortage of water supply, as a result water plants in many cities and towns are forced to relocate over and over again, causing great damage to the region’s environment. According to incomplete statistics, over 200 bridges have been built over river channels in the Pearl River Delta Region since 1980s. Along the 368-kilometer coastline in Guangdong Province, 52 ports with a handling capacity of 145,000,000 tons and 936 berths (including 84 10000-ton-class berths) have already been built; many ports are being expanded by filling the sea. Many expressways and gas transmission pipelines have been built. A high-and-new-tech industrial belt that ranks No. 1 in China in terms of output value has been built. The electronic information products manufacturing industry has become the No. 1 economic growth point[2]. Large-scale capital construction and industrial development have substantially altered the land utilization mode in the Pearl River Delta Region and reduced the area of river channels and river mouths. In the Pearl River Delta Region, cities are densely distributed with short distances between them. This results in a concentration of sources of pollution and grave air pollution. According to the report on environmental condition issued by the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, the concentration of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust in the Pearl River Delta Region is apparently higher than that of east, west and north of Guangdong Province. This region accounts for 70% of the total installed capacity of thermal power and generated power in Guangdong Province, and the emission of acid-rain-inducing substances such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides is huge, as a result, the Pearl River Delta Region with Guangzhou and Foshan as the core has become a district frequented by acid rains. The frequency of acid rain in this region reaches an average of 53%, making it one of the world’s three biggest acid rain areas[3]. In many places, “three kinds of wastes” generated by a large number of small-sized electroplating factories, paper mills and leather plants are discharged without standardized treatment, causing pollution to the local soil. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China in 2005 showed that of some cities sampled in the Pearl River Delta Region, almost 40% of the soil in farm lands and vegetable fields exceeded the stipulated 992 limit in terms of concentration of heavy metal pollutants, among which 10% were rated as “in serious excess of stipulated limit”. In addition, there were also other pollutants such as residual pesticides, nitrate, nitrite and organic matter, etc. The Pearl River Delta Region is burdened with lack of energy resources, conspicuous conflict between supply and demand, and inability to ensure long-term supply. Since 2006, this region suffered repeatedly from lack of sufficient power load and generated electricity. far-below-the-safety-line inventory of coal and oil products necessary for ensuring normal manufacturing. 3.3 Exploding Migrating Population Aggravates Social Problems The rapid development of the Pearl River Delta Region and income growth combine to fuel the rapid increase in migrating population. According to the fifth census data, China now has a floating population of 120 million including 40 million that migrate between different provinces, among these 40 million people, 11.6 million flow into Guangdong Province, and 90% of these 11.6 million people flow into villages and towns in the Pearl River Delta Region. On the one hand, they help create material wealth for the local villages and towns, but on the other hand, they bring greater burden to the already-vulnerable environment and the already-scarce resources. In terms of the total amount of land and water resources, many towns have already reached or exceeded their growth limits. Take the industrially developed Shajing Town in Shenzhen for example, the appropriate environmental capacity is 220,000 people, but now it has a population of nearly 600,000 among which about 570,000 are migrating population. The substantial growth of migrating population not only brings greater burden to the resources and environment of the local villages and towns, but also aggravates public security condition because these migrating workers come from the countryside, have relatively low quality and lack a sense of identity. This constitutes a hidden hazard for the urbanized management and sustainable development. Reality tells us that the Pearl River Delta Region is now faced with excessive population, concentration of industry and commerce, lack of resources and huge consumption of resources, which substantially constrains the sustainable economic and social development and modernization of this region. Therefore, how to alleviate the conflict between insufficient resources and increasing demand and how to achieve constant environmental improvement to ensure sustainable development has become a very urgent task for the development of this region. Only by vigorously developing green economy and building a resource-saving region can we realize the goal of transforming the Pearl River Delta Region from an economy that purely pursues economic growth to one that aims at coordinated development of population, resources, environment and economy. By then, we will stop taking from the nature irresponsibly but instead protect the nature and constantly improve human’s living environment and optimize the ecological structure to realize harmonious co-existence between human and the environment. Only by doing so can we truly embark on a civilized development path that features coordinated improvement of production, living standards and environment. 4 Study on Strategies for Developing the Pearl River Delta Region into a Green Economy and Resource-Saving Region “Vigorously developing the Pearl River Delta Region into a green economy and resource-saving region” means improving the utilization efficiency of resources and alleviating the conflict between the increasingly scarce resources and the sustainable high-speed economic growth in the Pearl River Delta Region by developing green economy. This reflects that the scientific development idea focuses on the relationship between human and sustainable development of nature and is consistent with the economic development strategic goal of building a resource-saving national economic system and a resource-saving society announced in the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party. Developing green economy and building a resource-saving society is a systematic, long-term project. The Pearl River Delta Region should proceed from the actual local situation, stick to the scientific development idea and perform the following tasks: 993 4.1 Change Thoughts, Create a Social Atmosphere of Advocating Thrifty and Condemning Waste Only by changing our thoughts can we change our behaviors. To build a resource-saving society, we must integrate the idea of “thrifty” into various fields of manufacturing, circulation, consumption and social life and create a social atmosphere of advocating thrifty and condemning waste. 4.1.1 Change Social Values, Establish Green Accounting System To build the Pearl River Delta Region into a resource-saving region, it is imperative that people change their social values, in other words, people must look at the nature with a “green economy” eye and appreciate the fact that nature is a usable, valuable yet rare resource and evaluate its value. Therefore it is necessary to establish an evaluation indices accounting system which is also known as “green accounting system” to measure how fast and to what extent resources are recycled in the entire process of economic and social activities. This system should be based on the theory of sustainable development and resource-saving society and gives a comprehensive reflection of various aspects including economic development level, development potential, use-economy of resources and environmental pollution treatment. It should contain “green GDP” or “EDP” (Adjusted Environmentally Domestic Product) as a core index. “Green GDP” or “EDP” means that when calculating GDP, the consumption of capital and natural resources must be deducted. Only by doing so can we truly understand the speed and quality of regional economic development and systematically build a resource-saving region with “green economy” mindset. 4.1.2 Change Conventional Resource Concept, Develop Green Resource Concept Given the “dual constraints” of resources shortage and environmental pollution, local governments in the Pearl River Delta Region should borrow proven experience from abroad and establish its own policies that suit the local situation, also local governments should vigorously advocate and develop a resource system with green energy (renewable energy) such as wind energy and solar energy as the core. For example, local governments can establish “Special Guarantee Fund for Green Energy” and provide free financial support to key projects and projects with technical difficulty, support the development of green energy by implementing preferential policies such as preferential loans and VAT, promote the popularization and application of green energy through market mechanism, and encourage enterprises to actively replace conventional energy with green energy. 4.1.3 Change Conventional Consumption Concept, Foster Green Consumption Concept Fostering green consumption concept is a systematic project that relates to various aspects of the society. As far as governments are concerned, leaders, cadres and all public servants at various levels should set a good example by practicing thrift and serve as the driving force for building a resource-saving society. As far as enterprises are concerned, they must implement strict whole-process quality control on products and services to form a green industrial chain with green consumption as the goal, green market as the carrier and green passage as logistics network. As far as consumers are concerned, local governments should promote green food consumption concept and scientific and safe consumption mode, vigorously advocate reasonable and moderate consumption so as to gradually establish a resource-saving consumption mode that suits China’s actual situation. 4.2 Governments Should Play a Leading Role in Providing Support for Developing Green Economy and Building a Resource-Saving Region Developing green economy requires a good social environment, policy environment and service environment. During practice, local governments should play the leading role, carry out uniform planning and implement step by step. 4.2.1 Create a Good Social Atmosphere Local governments should use all means and the press media to promote the idea of developing green economy and building a resource-saving society so as to enhance enterprises and the public’s awareness of the scarcity of resources and importance of practicing thrift and environmental protection, so that everyone in the society cares about resources and appreciates the importance of developing economy in an economic, clean, safe and sustainable manner. 4.2.2 Establish and Implement Relevant Policies and Measures 994 Local governments should establish and implement relevant policies and measures, constantly improve policies, establish scientific and reasonable performance appraisal measures for economic and political achievements, provide enough incentive for governments at the village or town level to supervise the implementation of resource-saving policies, establish and improve various managerial systems, set clear goals and effective measures, establish resource saving technical service system, step up efforts in collecting and releasing information on resource saving condition, and provide good services to villages, towns, enterprises and other parties to facilitate resource saving. 4.3.3 Transform Functions of Local Governments Local governments' functions should be transformed from dominating and interfering to guiding, supervising and participating, governments should actively provide all-round services to promote the development of green economy and a resource-saving society. 4.3 Change Economic Growth Mode, Establish a Resource-saving Regional Economic System The key to building the Pearl River Delta Region into a resource-saving region is to change the economic growth mod. In other words, policies should be based on the consideration of whether they will help promote sustainable development and enhance the region’s competitive advantages. Focus should be put on core links such as adjustment and optimization of industrial structure and development of green economy so as to establish a resource-saving regional economic system. The key to changing the economic growth mode is to realize two transformations. 4.3.1 Change of Industrial Structure The industrial structure must change from one that is mainly driven by industry to one jointly driven by industry and service sector. Efforts should be stepped up in providing guidance on planning and promoting the industrial restructuring. “Encouraged”, “restricted” and “obsolete” industrial projects must be clearly identified. The development of resource-saving industrial projects should be promoted; industries with low technology content, high resources consumption, and grave environmental pollution must be eliminated. Meanwhile, the development of high-and-new-tech industries must be accelerated, the service industry should be vigorously developed. advanced and applicable technologies should be actively adopted to transform the traditional industries. 4.3.2 Transformation of Resources Utilization Mode Resources utilization mode should transform from the single-direction straight-line process of “resource-product-waste” to a feedback loop process of “resource-product-waste-renewable resource” so as to base the economic growth on optimization of economic structure, increase in technology content and improvement in quality efficiency to gradually realize the economic mode characterized by “low input, low consumption, low emission, high efficiency”. 4.4 Establish Green Economy Technological Support System That Suits the Local Characteristics of the Pearl River Delta Region by Relying on Technological Innovation Technological progress is a key driving force for economic growth, it is also an effective way to promote resource-saving. From technological point of view, the main problems that need to be tackled in developing green economy include high energy consumption, high discharge and low use efficiency. To solve these problems, the resource-saving technologies must be improved in an all-round manner. Promote the transformation from extensive, low-efficiency technologies to intensive, resource-saving and high-efficiency technologies through technological innovation. Improve managerial skills and make full use of the efficiency potential of good management to promote the formation of a resource-saving economic growth mode. Local governments should proceed from the actual situation of the Pearl River Delta Region and actively promote the development of resource-saving technologies, establish an industrial technological innovation system that promotes sustainable utilization of resources and environmental protection, tackle the resource-saving technological bottleneck and accelerate the conversion of technological achievements into productivity Organize the implementation of major resource-saving technology demonstration projects, promote the application of advanced and efficient energy-saving and water-saving equipment and devices, utilize high and new technologies and advanced applicable technologies to transform traditional industries, promote the development and upgrading of 995 high and new technologies and the tertiary industry. 5 Conclusion The sustainable and harmonious social and economic development of the Pearl River Delta Region matters a great deal to the sustainable and harmonious social and economic development of the entire Guangdong Province. Given such a significant mission and a series of development obstacles to be surmounted, local governments in the Pearl River Delta Region should step up efforts in environmental protection while vigorously developing economy. Local governments should vigorously develop the region into a green economy and a resource-saving society so as to realize a harmonious relationship between economic development, population growth, environmental protection and resource utilization and to push ahead the construction of a well-off society. 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