Green Development: Belt and Road is Global and Rational

Abstract

Belt and Road construction has great significance for China in that it accelerates the formation of mechanisms that promote innovation, fosters coordination, advocates greening, lays a solid foundation for openness, and encourages sharing. In 2017, President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, stating that we “will thoroughly implement the idea of innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development, continuously adapt to, grasp, and lead the new normal of economic development, and actively advance supply-side structural reform to achieve sustainable development, injecting strong impetus into Belt and Road and bringing new opportunities for world development.” He also argued that we must “practice new ideas for green development, advocate green, low-carbon, circular, and sustainable means of production and living, strengthen cooperation in ecological and environmental protection, and construct an ecological civilization to jointly achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”