To many Chinese officials at the county and city levels, the newly released half-year evaluation reports on energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) make for grim reading.
The accelerated growth of high energy-consuming industries has aroused concerns over the effectiveness of the nation's efforts to restructure its economy to save energy and cut emissions.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has called on China to promote the use of carbon dioxide capture and storage, an emerging technology that it said can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The country loses about 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) each year due to the lack of recycling programs that would reuse urban rubbish, experts said on Tuesday.
As the world's largest agricultural nation, China has great potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through the application of a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), experts said.
Edward Guiliano, president and CEO of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), said education is as important as government or business in today's global discourse on sustainability and thinking green.
A leading executive from German chemical giant BASF said lack of information about technological advances was a barrier to more progress being made in preventing environmental damage.
China needs an additional investment of $64 billion annually over the next two decades to implement an "energy-smart" growth strategy, the World Bank said.
China has made significant efforts to pursue energy and resource efficiencies to achieve sustainable development, while the nation still faces challenges in the transition to a low-carbon economy and needs integrated solution systems.
Developing a low-carbon model, promoting environmentally safe lifestyles will open up economic opportunities.
Last year China overtook the United States in the race to invest in wind, solar and other renewable sources of energy to become the world's biggest investor in clean energy, according to a report published by a US-based think tank.
Developing countries could achieve sustainable growth by reviewing the economic growth models of China and India, Managing Director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Thursday.