Since 2000 China has been implementing the Western Development Strategy, the aims of which are to push the development of backward areas and reduce regional imbalance. Since its inception, the western development drive has integrated ecological construction and environmental protection as a vital task, and in the process of executing a succession of eco-environment projects has enhanced the region's capability to adapt to climate change.

The Western Region covered by the program includes six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai), five autonomous regions (Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Guangxi) and Chongqing municipality. Together they account for more than 70 percent of continental China and are home to 75 percent of China's ethnic minority population.

Changing Economic Development Mode

The Western Region has accelerated the pace of industrial restructuring by relying on market principles, comparative local advantages and technological progress.

It is vigorously developing industries with regionally-specific advantages and a circular economy, in order to promote the formation of an industrial structure and growth mode that is conducive to the mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Circular economy pilot projects in Gansu and Qinghai provinces have helped accelerate the evolution of clean industrial production, and have had an initial impact on reducing industry-generated GHG emissions.

Through applying modern business models and service technology the Western Region is transforming its old service industry and developing modern tertiary businesses. Overhaul in this area has been pinpointed as the most favored route of the Western Development Strategy. Now tourism has become an increasingly important pillar industry of the region, and the share of tertiary industry in its GDP has increased from 35.2 percent in 1999 to 38.6 percent in 2009.

In addition, great efforts are being made to develop renewable energy sources and optimize energy structure so as to reduce GHG emissions. Since the implementation of the Western Development Strategy, nearly six million methane tanks have been built, totaling an annual output of over 600 million cubic meters. Hydroelectricity projects are being carried out systematically on the precondition of protecting local ecology. The regional installed capacity currently stands at 86.3 million kW, representing 44 percent of the total for China. In Gansu, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, where wind resources are rich, three wind farms each with capacity of tens of millions of kW are being built; the current installed capacity in the Western Region is 7.9 million kW, representing 45 percent of total installed wind power capacity in China. Meanwhile, the photovoltaic industry has been steadily promoted in areas abundant in solar energy, such as Tibet, Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Ningxia. Their photovoltaic power capacity will reach two million kW by 2011. Technological advancement in thermal power generation is also underway, particularly in the area of efficient and clean-coal power generation.

Generally speaking, chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide emissions in the Western Region have plainly decreased, and per unit GDP energy consumption has gone down year after year.