麦肯锡中国城市可持续发展报告(9)

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The Urban China Initiative

Introduction to the China Urban Sustainability Index 2013

Three years ago, the Urban China Initiative published the Urban Sustainability Index (USI), which provided a comprehensive analysis of the sustainability shifts taking place across cities in China. Since then, the USI has been refined and updated. USI is comprised of a group of indicators that provide a comprehensive assessment of a city’s sustainability performance across four categories: economy, society, resources and environment. USI also accounts for the relationships between sub-categories. USI data provides a rich source for academic research, and serves as a point of reference for China’s policymakers as they evaluate the country’s sustainable development efforts and craft urban development policy.

Deepening reforms

Under the guise of China’s new reforms, more than half the nation’s counties and county-level cities will phase out GDP evaluation. Yang Weimin, Vice Director of the Central Financial Leading Group Office, made this promise at the annual forum of the Urban China Initiative on November 28, 2013. The forum followed the landmark Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee earlier in the month. Two weeks later, CPC’s Organizational Department issued A Notice to Improving the Performance Evaluation of Local Party and Government Leading Bodies and Leading Cadres. The notice asked Communist Party officials to look beyond GDP and other growth rates as main performance indicators, refrain from ranking local GDP and growth rates, or assess the performance of leading cadres based solely on GDP. This represented a sea change in the evaluation of urban performance. It showed a calculated and deliberate decision by the new leadership to assess China’s achievements over the past ten years, and transform its growth model for the future. Economic development as the center of reform has undoubtedly brought prosperity and development to China. However, if priority continues to be placed on maximizing the size and growth rate of the economy, tensions between economic growth, social development, resource utilization, and protection of the environment will worsen, rendering China’s economy development unsustainable.Under the government’s new growth strategy, we expect to see major changes in economic development strategies, with a much greater emphasis on pursuing a more balanced and sustainable set of development metrics.

New urbanization strategy

The Decision reached at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed “a new path of urbanization with Chinese characteristics.”

At the urbanization working conference (following the Third Plenary Session), the Central government emphasized that a national effort was underway to improve the quality and level of urbanization. This would involve making better use of land, managing population concentration, upgrading energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions, prioritizing environmental security, and increasing forest, lake and wetland conservation. Efforts would also focus on boosting water conservation, reducing discharge of major pollutants, slowing development in some areas, and enhancing the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.

Given this turn of events, China’s urbanization effort will focus more on economic

sustainability, social development, resource presevation and environmental protection.