CRI听力:Growing the Economy in a more Sustainable Way

The key question during the Rio+20 conference and for the future, is how emerging countries can develop their economies in a more environmentally friendly way.

During Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's speech at the conference, he says countries must share the common responsibilities of protecting our planet.
 
Chief economist for the Agricultural Bank of China, Xiang Songzuo agrees and says this is a serious issue globally and specifically in China.

"How to balance economic growth and environmental protection, which I think right now particularly in China has become a very critical issue and many people are concerned about the deteriorating of the environment. Air pollution, Water pollution, food security and many other things. So how to balance economic growth and environmental, not only in natural, but also social environment."

China has continued urging the international community to help make joint efforts in promoting more sustainable development, while saying China itself, is ready to contribute in this area.

Xiang says one of the ways China and other countries can combat this issue is to change their strategy in economic development.

"There is common concern in how to make development growth environmentally friendly and how to protect natural resources. So as how to change or transform the growth model from dependent consumption of natural resources into a growth model less dependent on consumption, even waste of natural resources."

But Professor Pan Jiahua from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences points out, that this is very difficult to achieve, because there is no current model of growing the economy in this way.

"They learn the abilities from the developed countries. On the other, they try to avoid that but there is no such model available and they have to invent their own. That will take time and resources. This is a real challenge for the developing countries to find a new path, which is sustainable, green and has a high rate of growth."

Coming out of this conference an action plan that reaffirms the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is expected to be adopted by the heads of state in an effort to establish better sustainable goals.

This conference, also known as the Earth Summit, marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark UN Conference on the Environment and Development hosted by Rio de Janeiro, which was considered the first step by the UN to put sustainable development as a priority on its agenda.

For CRI, I'm Nate Schlabach.