Two years after the adoption of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Resolution on further deepening comprehensive reforms to promote modernization, China's ecological civilization reform continues to develop. In this context, green development is becoming an increasingly significant factor determining the country's economic and energy strategies.
Through institutional innovations, industrial modernization, and energy transition, China's green transformation is changing its energy future while simultaneously helping to alleviate global energy tensions and providing valuable experience for strengthening global energy security and green governance.
The logic of China's reforms is that carbon emission reduction should not rely solely on administrative requirements. It must be integrated into markets, the financial sector, industry, and daily economic decisions. This is why China continues to improve its national carbon market. Initially applied in the energy sector, the carbon market has been expanded to major industrial sectors such as steel, cement, and aluminum production. These sectors are closely linked to infrastructure, manufacturing, and urban development. Including them in the carbon market means that carbon costs, emission data, and low-carbon technologies will increasingly influence companies' investment and production decisions.
In parallel, China has strengthened the role of green finance. Clearer standards for green loans, green bonds, and other financial instruments help direct capital towards renewable energy sources, energy efficiency improvements, clean transport, green manufacturing, and other low-carbon projects. For businesses, this changes the nature of the green transition: low-carbon modernization ceases to be merely a compliance requirement, transforming into a source of financial advantage and long-term competitiveness.
These transformations are part of broader efforts to change China's development model. The country has invested heavily in renewable energy, electric vehicles, energy storage, smart grids, and low-carbon manufacturing. The growth of these industries is not accidental; it reflects the cumulative impact of political leadership, large markets, infrastructure construction, technological innovation, and industrial competition. Thus, the ecological civilization reform is inseparable from modernization and has become one of the foundations of Chinese modernization.
The automotive sector serves as a prime example. China is currently the world's largest electric vehicle market. The rapid growth of electric mobility is changing the structure of energy demand in the transport sector. Previously, economic growth, urbanization, and increased household incomes typically led to higher consumption of gasoline and diesel fuel. Today, a growing share of transport demand is met by electricity. As China's power supply system becomes cleaner, this shift also paves the way for deeper transport decarbonization.
The importance of this transformation becomes even clearer against the backdrop of global energy instability. In recent years, geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions, uncertainty in shipping routes, and frequent oil price volatility have reminded the world of the central role of energy security for economic stability. For many developing countries, high oil prices are not just market fluctuations; they mean inflation, pressure on foreign exchange reserves, increased transportation costs, and worsening growth prospects.
China is not immune to such shocks. It remains a major energy consumer and oil importer. However, the green reform has enhanced the resilience of China's energy system. Electrification, the expansion of renewable energy, and improved energy efficiency have reduced China's dependence on oil for growth. When international oil prices fluctuate, China is less tied to the old paradigm where every additional unit of economic growth required more oil consumption.
This matters not only for China but for the entire world. If China, with its massive market and production capacity, had continued along the traditional path of intensive fossil fuel consumption, global oil demand would face even greater pressure. Oil prices could be higher, and the burden on energy-importing countries heavier. Instead, China's green industrial transformation has redirected part of its incremental energy demand from oil to electricity and clean energy. This does not eliminate global energy risks, but it provides an important buffer.
Thus, China's internal reform has external significance. By reducing its reliance on fossil fuels for growth, China strengthens its own energy security while contributing to global energy stability. The world often discusses China's green transition in terms of climate change, which is important. But its contribution to global energy security must also be recognized. China's more flexible and cleaner energy system helps reduce pressure on global fossil fuel markets.
For developing countries, China's experience does not imply the need to copy all policy tools. Countries differ in resources, industrial structures, fiscal capabilities, and stages of development. The underlying logic is more useful. First, green development requires institutions, not just slogans. Carbon markets, green finance, emissions disclosure, and energy efficiency standards can change incentives for firms and investors, helping to turn emission reduction from an external constraint into an internal business decision.
Second, decarbonization must be linked to energy security. For many developing countries, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels is not just a climate goal but also a way to reduce vulnerability to oil price shocks, protect macroeconomic stability, and strengthen developmental autonomy. Third, green industries require scale. China's experience shows that clean technologies become accessible when supported by infrastructure, large markets, supply chains, and competition. The goal is not perpetual subsidy dependence, but creating conditions where green technologies can compete, expand, and benefit ordinary consumers.
Two years after adopting the reform resolution, China's ecological civilization reform demonstrates that green development is not an obstacle to modernization but a driver of it. By using reforms to guide markets, industry, and finance toward a low-carbon future, China is shaping its own energy future while easing pressure on the world. This path of reform, balancing both internal and external imperatives, offers a replicable example of institutional innovation for global energy governance.
When discussing development issues, people often focus on obvious results such as the construction of roads, railways, factories, and ports, as well as the reduction of poverty and improvement in quality of life. These signs of progress are highly significant.
However, they also raise a deeper question: how can a country transform long-term national goals into sustainable improvements in the lives of its population? This question concerns many countries in the Global South. Modernization is not a ready-made formula nor does it follow a single path; it is shaped by history, culture, institutions, resources, and the choice of each people. No country can simply copy another's path, but states can learn from each other in the search for effective governance, sustainable development, and a better future.
China's experience represents one contribution to this broad dialogue. As a large developing country with a population of over 1.4 billion people, China has faced complex challenges in achieving development, maintaining stability, and improving welfare. Its successes were not the result of a single policy or moment, but rather the gradual accumulation of experience through the ability to maintain a clear direction while adjusting methods according to changing circumstances.
An important aspect of understanding this experience is the link between continuity and change. Development requires patience: infrastructure, education, healthcare, industrial modernization, poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, and environmental protection—all require years of coordination and investment. A country must be able to look beyond short-term pressures and remain focused on long-term objectives.
China's Five-Year Plans reflect this emphasis on continuity, serving as strategic roadmaps. They define priorities, guide resources, and set political direction, while leaving room for local experimentation and adjustment. The value of these plans lies not only in the planning itself but in linking planning to implementation. Goals must be translated into concrete tasks, and policies must be executed at various levels.
Nevertheless, continuity does not mean rejecting change. Reforms have played a central role in China's development. After reforms and opening up, China advanced through experimentation, experience, and adjustments. Many important measures began as pilot programs, local trials, or sectoral reforms before being expanded more widely. This approach allowed China to test solutions in real conditions, learn from practice, and gradually refine policies. Therefore, China's governance cannot be viewed as a fixed model; it is a constantly evolving process. From special economic zones to industrial parks, from rural reforms to digital governance, from poverty eradication to green development, China has often moved by combining national guidance with practical experimentation.
Another aspect of China's experience is its people-centric approach. Economic growth is necessary, but it is not the ultimate measure of development. The true measure is whether people are living better and have more opportunities. China's campaign to combat extreme poverty illustrates this approach. Instead of applying a uniform formula everywhere, China identified poor households, studied local conditions, and implemented targeted measures, including infrastructure improvement, local industry development, education, healthcare, and resettlement where necessary.
The significance of this experience lies not only in the scale of poverty reduction but also in the fact that effective governance must reach real people in real places. National averages are important, but they cannot replace an understanding of the actual situation of households, villages, and communities. This customer-oriented approach continues to shape China's focus on employment, education, public health, social security, and rural revitalization.
Modernization should be assessed not only by cities, industries, or technologies, but by how many more people can participate in development. Green development offers another example of China's constant adaptation. As a developing country, China has been forced to balance growth, industrialization, energy security, and environmental protection. This is a complex task for any country, yet China has made significant progress in renewable energy, electric vehicles, battery technology, and green infrastructure. For the Global South, the green transition must be equitable, practical, and supportive of development.
China's governance experience also holds broader significance. For a long time, modernization was sometimes presented as if there was only one path. China's path demonstrates that development trajectories can be diverse. A country can learn from the world while remaining rooted in its own conditions. It can embrace cooperation while retaining the right to choose the path suitable for its people.
This is also the spirit with which China approaches cooperation with Africa. China does not seek to export a model nor does it believe that one country holds all the answers. Cooperation must be based on equality, mutual respect, and mutual learning. China's cooperation with African countries has focused on practical areas such as infrastructure, trade, investment, agriculture, education, public health, and people-to-people exchange, as development is the foundation of peace, dignity, and stability.
China and South Africa are important members of the Global South. Both countries share a long friendship, strong political trust, and a wide scope for cooperation. Here, in KwaZulu-Natal, exchanges in trade, investment, clean energy, skills development, tourism, digital economy, education, and local-level cooperation can help bring partnerships closer to communities and daily life. Such cooperation is not about one side teaching the other; it is about leveraging each other's strengths, learning from experiences, and creating opportunities tailored to local conditions.
The key to understanding China's governance achievements is not a mystery. It lies in seeing how a large developing country has strived to combine continuity with reform, planning with implementation, national development with people's well-being, and internal progress with openness to the world. Ultimately, governance is about a country's ability to turn its vision into reality. China's path shows that development is built step by step through long-term efforts, practical actions, and continuous learning. This can be a useful key to understanding China's experience and the contribution China can make to the global pursuit of development among the Global South.
