Key takeaways:
- A Legacy of High-Level Access: Emerging from different cooperation initiatives between global experts and China’s top leadership, Martin Lees elaborates how the Council has successfully supported China’s environment and development progress with international policy expertise since 1992.
- Strategic International Partnership: Long-term financial and organizational support from Canada provided the essential stability needed for the Council to evolve into a permanent, predictable platform for global environmental cooperation, Martin Lees writes.
- Science-Policy Integration: By bridging the gap between rigorous scientific research and cross-ministerial policy, the Council ensures that economic growth and ecological limits are addressed as a single, unified development agenda.
Martin Lees, one of the founding figures of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) recounts the China Council’s journey—from its emergence out of earlier environment and development cooperation initiatives between China and the international community to the drafting of its Charter and the first Annual General Meeting in 1992. In this exclusive essay, Lees elaborates on how it evolved into a unique organization in the global sustainable development landscape and why it remains well positioned to play a major role in the years ahead.
One of the first major steps toward creating the China Council was an international conference in Beijing in June 1988. It brought senior leaders from China together with global experts to discuss China’s strategic reform challenges. We even met with the country’s top three leaders—including a two-hour conversation with Deng Xiaoping, one of the most consequential figures in China’s modern history.
A key session at this conference explored how environmental and resource limits would shape China’s long-term development. This theme was echoed in a parallel effort to guide sustainable development in Hainan province, then China’s largest Special Economic Zone. Although that initiative was not sustained, it set an important precedent for what later became the China Council.
The 1988 meetings also led to an international cooperation program, “China and the World in the Nineties.” From 1988 to 1998, this program gave Chinese leaders direct access to international policy experience and helped lay the ground for the China Council.
China Council Charter
In July 1989, I suggested that the issue of integration of environment and development could become the focus of enhanced cooperation between China and the world community. This resulted in a letter confirming the decision of the Chinese Authorities to undertake an important Chinese initiative by convening a high-level international conference on this topic. They asked me to assist in exploring the possibility of ensuring strong international participation on an agreed Agenda.
The letter was signed by 3 important personalities: Dr. Song Jian, then State Counsellor and Chairman of the National Environmental Protection Commission of the State Council, Dr. Qu Geping, then Administrator of the National Environmental Protection Agency, and Professor Ma Hong, then President of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Finally, in March 1991, Xie Zhenhua and I were mandated to draft the China Council’s Charter under Qu Geping’s guidance. Xie Zhenhua was then Deputy Administrator of China’s National Environment Protection Agency and of course later served as China’s Administrator of State Environmental Protection Administration and Special Envoy on Climate Change, among other prominent roles. He remains a China Council Vice Chair to this day.
With support of the three prominent letter authors, the Charter was approved by the State Council, and in 1992, the China Council was formally established.
International support
In spite of this rapid progress, one final crucial step towards the establishment of the Council remained: how to find the initial financial support to launch the Council quickly and convincingly.
In view of the long and positive relationship between Canada and China, I visited Dr. Marcel Massé, then President of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Ottawa and asked him for the necessary support. He confirmed to me within six weeks that CIDA would provide the requested CAD 5 million over five years to support the Council. This visionary initial contribution maintained the momentum of the initiative and established an attractive and predictable framework for contributions by the wide range of donors today.
Dr. Massé designated Simon Fraser University to manage the international funds and a clear distinction developed that Canada would exclusively fund the Council’s international experts and activities.
The first Annual General Meeting of the Council in China’s State Guest House in April1992. I remain deeply grateful for that early support. The continued backing of the Council’s international activities from Canada since its inception—today through Environment and Climate Change Canada—has assured a rare degree of stability and predictability, enabling serious longer-term activities.
Why the Council became a success—and has a promising future
Before we wrap up, let me highlight a few reasons for the Council’s success—and why they matter for the future of the organization.
Openness to global ideas
China’s leadership has been unusually open to international experience—while also testing what truly fits China’s needs, culture, and goals. Council members have had rare access to senior leaders, helping shape long-term thinking on development and cooperation. As China plays a larger global role, this space for dialogue and mutual understanding becomes even more valuable.
A focus on development and environment together
The Council puts integration at the center: economic growth, energy and resource use, and environmental protection as one agenda. Raising living standards while respecting ecological limits is one of China’s defining challenges. Strong engagement from key economic bodies—such as the State Planning Commission, now the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)—has been critical in moving toward more sustainable growth.
Cross-government collaboration
On the Chinese side, the Council brings together ministries and agencies across sectors. This kind of multidisciplinary cooperation is difficult, but essential for tackling complex, interconnected challenges. This has been particularly important in developing China’s broadly based strategy on climate change.
Science linked to policy
The Council’s credibility comes from rigorous work by cross-disciplinary research teams, building mutual confidence over time, resulting in our yearly set of Special Policy Studies. Solid scientific analysis, combined with high-level access, has helped bridge the gap between research and policy—especially on climate and sustainability. Over three decades, Chinese and international experts have built a unique body of knowledge and networks that will continue to support the Council’s work.
Review and renewal
The China Council’s original Charter included a “sunset clause,” requiring a full review every five years before continuation. Although the latest version of the Charter no longer contains this clause, its spirit lives on through the detailed reviews conducted after each five-year research phase. This process keeps the Council focused, adaptive, and relevant by regularly refreshing its priorities, methods, research topics, and membership.
I am sure that all of us who have been involved in the work of the Council consider it a great honor and privilege to have been able to participate in a small way in the historic processes of China’s rapid and successful development. I myself am deeply grateful to have had this opportunity to be a member of the China Council family with colleagues across the world.
About Martin Lees
Martin Lees has held senior roles across the international system, first at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and then at the United Nations as Assistant Secretary-General and later Rector of the University for Peace in Costa Rica.
He helped lead several global initiatives, including the InterFutures Project at OECD, the InterAction Council, UN work on financing science and technology for development, the International Committee for Economic Reform and Cooperation in the NIS, and CCICED. After serving as Secretary-General of the Club of Rome, he most recently moderated a high-level climate task force convened by Mikhail Gorbachev.
A graduate in mechanical sciences from University of Cambridge, he has long applied systems thinking to global challenges. Today he works as an international consultant and lecturer on transformational change in growth models, climate policy, education, and new approaches to peace and security.