Sustainability: NZ could learn a lot from China

Windbreaks planted near Dunhuang serve to hold the desert back and prevent ploughed soil from blowing away in dust storms.

Desertification trends have reversed in many areas, soil erosion has waned substantially, water quality has improved dramatically, agricultural productivity has increased, hunger has disappeared and households are generally better off.

Developed nations such as New Zealand could learn from China in reaching global sustainability goals, according to the first comprehensive study on the effectiveness of China's world-leading environmental investment.

The study, published in Nature, reviewed China's response to a national land-system sustainability emergency, where hundreds of billions of dollars were poured in to arrest alarming levels of environmental degradation, hunger and rural poverty.

Lead author Brett Bryan, professor of Global Change, Environment and Society at Deakin University in Australia, said last century China began facing enormous problems due to overuse and mismanagement of its land systems through farming and deforestation. From 1998, China responded to this crisis by dramatically escalating its investment in rural sustainability.

"Through to 2015, more than US$350 billion was invested via 16 sustainability programmes, addressing more than 620 million hectares (65 per cent of the country's land area), and mobilising a 500-million-strong labour force," Professor Bryan said.

"At around 0.34 per cent of GDP, China's investment in sustainability was unprecedented for a single nation. Desertification trends have reversed in many areas, soil erosion has waned substantially, water quality has improved dramatically, agricultural productivity has increased, hunger has disappeared and households are generally better off."

Professor Bryan said China was by no means out of the woods in regards to environmental sustainability. It still had major issues with air, water, and soil pollution and, as China continues to develop, it needs to ensure it does not simply shift its impacts overseas.

There were lessons to be learnt from China's experience for every country, he said.

"Ultimately, to make a difference we need to spend a lot more on the environment.

"We need to think about it not as a luxury but as an essential service requiring long-term and large-scale public investment, similar to health, education, defence or infrastructure. It's something the government needs to take on as a priority, and really lead from the top."