"Sustainability policies and environmental leapfrogging in the industrial development and post catching-up panorama of China"

In the fast process of economic and industrial development of China, an important aspect the whole world pays lots of attention to, is environment and sustainability. This thesis wants to analyse the Chinese development experience and the catching-up phase that led the country to leapfrogging. In the first chapter, the main focus is on the speed of this development, how it happened and which factors played an important role. The history of China’s economic evolution started with the first reforms and policies about 70 years ago and during this time, China has become a developed country and even a leader in the global economic panorama of the present days. In the second chapter of the thesis, the last eight Five Years Plans are analysed to better understand the policies and the measures Chinas has adopted and is still adopting to face the problems of pollution and the green transition of the industries. Indeed, in general it is evident the big improvement in some aspects linked to development like GDP, infrastructures, people’s quality of life, globalization, technologies, investments on research and development etc. However, in this panorama, there is an aspect that is more and more discussed and important from a global point of view: sustainability. Chinese industrial development and growth is not sustainable and China has repeatedly been accused of not caring enough about environment. But, is it actually true? Chinese industrial development has been so rapid that it has been difficult to control in its entirety. And as consequence, the environmental aspect has been neglected and it has taken a back seat for the government, particularly at the beginning of the industrialization stage of China. This doesn’t mean that China is not taking seriously the protection and defence of the environment, in fact it has already implemented initiatives, policies and regulations for an ecological transition looking at the future. Nowadays China is actually the country that invests the most in sustainability in the world, particularly considering renewable energies and it is increasingly becoming a leading country in this field and an example, an incentive for other nations. The third chapter is about the development of renewable energies with a focus on China, by reporting some data showing that this is a path that started a few years ago and in which China has invested and is investing a lot and is therefore growing strongly and with good results. The question this thesis wants to investigate about is how China is developing and implementing sustainable and environmental policies and measures and if there is the possibility to do it as rapidly as it industrially developed through the last decades. And also see if is there any possibility for China to even leapfrog other countries as far as it concerns sustainability. Starting from these questions and focusing on these aspects, this thesis aims also at investigating new technologies, renewable energy sectors and the concrete achievements of the country that are contributing to the protection of the environment, the reduction of pollution and the sustainable transition. The objective is to have a general overview of the catching-up phase of Chinese development and on the environmental leapfrogging with a focus on the speed of these processes and the factors that has affected them and led to the present days’ situation. Thus, in the general panorama of Chinese industrial development, we want to pay attention to the sustainability and environmental aspect and see how it has been managed and how it is managed now, and which are the future perspectives for the country.