Over the last three decades, China has demonstrated an ability for economic development that is unparalleled globally in its
speed and scale. In one generation China has leapt from being a low-technology agrarian economy to a mass producer of
goods to developed countries!

Faced with environmental challenges and restricted resource availability, China is now engaged in taking another leap in
order to ensure its continued development, this time towards a more energy-efficient, low-carbon and ‘circular’ economy.
Massive investment, brainpower and Chinese dexterity will be devoted to realizing this goal over the coming decades. And
I believe China will succeed.

In the 20th century the world’s largest companies were petroleum or petroleum-based transport companies. In the 21st
century, the world’s largest companies will most likely be the providers of low-carbon solutions, and China’s development
will be a decisive factor in this shift. The path taken by 1.3 billion people cannot fail to have an impact on the world. It is
simply impossible for China not to play a leadership role.

Western entrepreneurs and stakeholders with access to effective or promising technological solutions now have an unprecedented opportunity to invest in and grow with the expanding Chinese market for low-carbon solutions, and thereby position themselves within an emerging, new global economy. Moreover, China’s speed of development and economy-of-scale will allow for commercialization of environmental technologies that can be exported to the global market where OECD countries
are posed to impose radical CO2 emission cuts.

A crisis – whether climatic or financial – implies opportunities to rethink current modus operandi and take new steps to
ensure a safe and prosperous future. An innovative, strong, global Clean Tech sector has the potential to ensure further
development and job creation while addressing the looming environmental threats to the Chinese and the global communities.
China’s future development provides immense opportunities for realizing global sustainable development. However, time
is short if we are to tackle the climate-change challenge without experiencing the potentially severely detrimental and
destabilizing effects of global warming. The race against time is on for Western governments and commercial stakeholders
to promote cooperation with China and spur the development of a Chinese low-emission society, if global warming is to be
tackled effectively. In the process we may foster the winners in a 21st century low-carbon economy.