Problems And Countermeasures In Environmental Management In China Under The Context Of Sustainable Development

The terminology 'sustainable development'(SD) was discussed formally for the first time on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Stockholm,1972, by representatives of both developing and developed countries from all over the globe. A widely adopted definition of SD is development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs-this definition appears in the Brundtland Report released by the United Nations in 1987. It can be inferred from the above definition that environment protection is an essential factor in SD. In order to let our descendants to enjoy human civilization as we do, we have to maintain our living conditions while conducting economical development, by means of protecting the natural resources such as the air, freshwater, soil and forest.Although nowadays we humans have created much material wealth for ourselves, we are in the meantime paying a heavy price by suffering from a serious deterioration of our living conditions. Random utilization and contamination of natural resources has brought the development of our society into a predicament never existed before. Environmental issues are becoming not only the bottleneck of economical growth, but also a major threat to the earth and us human beings as a whole. This worrying situation is also the case in China-the air and freshwater system is suffering from heavy contamination; vegetation coverage rate is decreasing gradually over the years; natural disasters such as soil erosion, landslides, earthquakes, floodings, droughts, blights happens more and more frequently. Upon awareness of these facts, it's an urgent task to enhance environmental management (EM) to ensure the well-being of all human kind.Based on the basic theories of EM and the review of relevant literatures, we first analyzed in this thesis the main weaknesses within EM in China and the reason why they came to pass. The weaknesses are considered from the following four aspects: Administration Issues; Laws and Policies; Public Participation; and Economical Methods. Research methodologies such as horizontal comparison, vertical comparison, micro analysis and macro analysis are utilized along the way. Some possible solutions and countermeasures are proposed afterwards. The solutions including:clarification of roles in EM; application of vertical management; strengthen of competition mechanism; completeness of law and policy system; rise of public awareness; development of the positive influence of non-governmental organizations; intensification of financial investments to the environmental industry; fortification of capital supervision, etc.