Introduction

　　Since the beginning of the reform and opening-up in 1978, China's rapid economic and social development has yield remarkable progress. Within 30 years, China has made significant progress in industrialization and modernization, the level of which have cost many developed nations more than 100 years to reach. China's development has not only brought a strong boost to China's national strength and people's living conditions, but also had a definite impact on world's economic and social balance. However, China's rapid economic development comes at the cost of tremendous pressure and sometimes adverse impact on resources and the environment, and thus also creates a series of social problems. Solely from the environmental point of view, the current situation is very challenging. The "State Council Decision on the implementation of the scientific development theory and strengthening environmental protection " (State Council [2005]39 ),summarizes it as the following: "Key pollutant emissions have exceeded their carrying capacities; rivers flowing by cities are generally polluted; many cities have serious air pollution problems; acid rain problems are getting worse; persistent organic compounds (POPs) start to occur; the area of contaminated soil expands; coastal waters pollution aggravates, there are potential hazard from nuclear and radiation materials; ecological damage, soil erosion and desertification are getting worse; biodiversity ecological system deteriorate. Environmental issues that emerge during other developed nations' more than 100 years industrialization process have occurred during China's more than 20 years' development, with unique structure, complexity, and concentration. "

　　The Chinese government and public have gone through a gradual and clear development process in their recognition of the relationship between development and environmental protection, from no awareness at all to self-motivation, from no dedicated agency to the establishment of a ministry-level State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), from basically no laws and regulations to basic functional environmental legal system, from one agency and a small number of people to a consortium to multiple agencies and extensive public participation. Prior to the 1992 Rio Conference, Chinese government, together with cooperating nations and renowned international environmental figures, founded the China Council of International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). With input of international experiences, CCICED has been carrying out research and study on a series of environmental and development issues and making recommendations to the Chinese government on the area of development and environmental protection. These recommendations have attracted attention by the Chinese government and various ministries and yield good results. It is recognized that the progress that China has made in environment and development issues during the past 10 years is almost all related to CCICED's effort: from concept to implementation, from issues to recommendations, from experience to innovation. All these progresses are representation of the collective wisdom and contribution from both foreign and domestic experts who have worked with CCICED. The unique operation mechanism of CCICED has also had a positive impact on the international environment community.

　　Since the beginning of the new century, particularly after the current administration took office in 2003, China's economic and social development has entered into a new stage, and the increasingly prominent emerging environmental issues in the development, along with China's collective leadership ever-deepening understanding of the environment and development issues based on the Chinese and foreign experience and lessons, the Chinese government has put forward a series of new development concept, development goals and guiding principles. First of all, in the autumn of 2003, the third Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee made it clear:" uphold the people-first concept, and establish a comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable scientific development theory", stressing according to" overall plans for urban and rural development, balancing development among regions, balancing economic and social development, the harmonious development of man and nature, and coordination of domestic development and opening up to the outside world" requirements to promote reform and development. In 2005, the central government observed increasingly excessive consumption of resources and deteriorating environmental impact, proposed "building a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society", "building a new socialist countryside" and "building a socialist harmonious society", which are integrated into the previously established target to achieve a "well-off" society by 2020. All of these are incorporated into China's 11th five-year social and economic development plan beginning from 2006. Some targets related to population growth, resources consumption and environment development have become compulsory requirements in the "11th Five-Year" plan..

　　Environment and development issues have become a critical concern in China's future development, as well as a major problem China and the rest of the world are facing in the globalization process. On April 23rd, 2006, at the Sixth National Conference on Environmental Protection, Premier Wen Jiabao proposed " To implement the scientific development theory, and to promote the harmonious development of man and society, we must strengthen environmental protection; To achieve the goal a well-off society, we must strengthen environmental protection; To improve the people's quality of life and level of health, we must strengthen environmental protection; To preserve the long-term potential of development and survival of China, we must strengthen environmental protection. " Premier Wen emphasized that the three conversions need to be fulfilled in order to well develop environmental protection work. The first is the change from economy oriented to equal attention to environmental protection and economy so as to develop economy in the process of environmental protection. The second is the change from delayed environmental protection after economic development to synchronous environmental protection and economic development. The third and the last is the change from taking administrative orders as main instruments to adopting integrated tools of law, economy, technology and necessary administrative methods. These four" must "and three" conversions" reflect the call of the times, reflect the government's new policy direction, and are the challenges that we should strive for.

　　It is at this crucial moment of environment and development that CCICED will soon complete its work of the third phase, and review future work needs and challenges. A lot of experiences and work done by CCICED in the last 15 years are worth reviewing, the new situation and problems of China environment and development issues that CCICED is facing need analysis, the new challenges China will have to face in the future development process require an overall assessment. Thus, CCICED council decided to establish a special high-level task group, which will be headed by the former state councilor academician Song Jian and former CIDA Director Ms. LaBelle, with the support of a group of renowned Chinese and foreign experts, to conduct research on the review of past 15 years and prospect of the next 15 years, so as to provide insight and direction for future development. The entire work consists of four parts: review, prospect, policy recommendations, and recommendations to the Phase IV of CCICED. Detailed reports on "review" and "prospect", as well as a series of special subject research reports are also attached.

　　This report could not be completed without the support from various parties involved, in particular the assistance provided by CCICED secretariat. Their contributions are greatly appreciated.