Nature-based solutions to China’s development challenges
Overview
While China’s remarkable industrial development has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and created a large middle class, it has also caused significant biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, and pollution in urban and rural areas. These environmental crises threaten human health and safety and undermine long-term economic development.
In response, China’s government is now promoting a system of ecological civilization to align environmental conservation and socio-economic development through initiatives in natural capital investment, sustainable infrastructure, biodiversity protection and renewable energy. Notably, China has committed to establishing official protection over 30% of its land by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
SCCEI is collaborating with the Stanford Natural Capital Project (NatCap) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES) to advance nature-based policy solutions and support sustainable development in China and around the world. Our research focuses on four key areas: Ecological Civilization, Gross Ecosystem Product, Urban Nature and Health, and Nature and Rural Vitalization.
OUR COLLABORATORS:
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Featured Projects
Ecological Civilization
Ecological Civilization, a new policy system in China, is designed to align environmental conservation with socio-economic development. Our research analyzes this emerging policy framework and identifies opportunities for collaboration with government, enterprises, and civil society.
Gross Ecosystem Product
Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) is an index that aggregates the total value of ecosystem goods and services into a single monetary metric. Co-developed by NatCap and RCEES, GEP is now being piloted in China on local and national levels.
Urban Nature and Health
With over 1 billion people projected to live in China’s cities by 2030, the mental and physical health of the urban population has become a top priority. Our research identifies how nature solutions can improve public health outcomes, with a focus on the role of urban greenspace.
Nature and Rural Vitalization
China’s rural countryside faces increasing needs for both environmental and economic investment. Our research aims to coordinate investments in natural capital with investments in human capital to transform China’s countryside into a frontier of sustainable development.
A huge increase in engineering graduates from the BRIC countries in recent
decades potentially threatens the competitiveness of developed countries in producing high
value-added products and services, while also holding great promise for substantially
increasing the level of global basic and applied innovation. The key question is whether the
quality of these new BRIC engineers will be high enough to actualize this potential. The
objective of our study is to assess the evolving capacity of BRIC higher education systems
to produce qualified engineering graduates. To meet this objective, we compare developments in the quality of undergraduate engineering programs across elite and non-elite
higher education tiers within and across each BRIC country. To assess and compare the
quality of engineering education across the BRIC countries, we use multiple sources of
primary and secondary data gathered from each BRIC country from 2008 to 2011. In
combination with this, we utilize a production function approach that focuses on key input-,
process- and outcome-based indicators associated with the quality of education programs.
Our analysis suggests that in all four countries, a minority of engineering students receives
high quality training in elite institutions while the majority of students receive low quality training in non-elite institutions. Our analysis also shows how the BRIC countries vary in
their capacity to improve the quality of engineering education.
