China’s Efforts in Sustainable Development: A Test Case for Nigeria’s Environmental Sustainability Goals

Abstract

The drive by nations to attain economic and social developments adversely affects the ecological balance of the environment. The challenges of maintaining a balance in the state of the global environment have become the major focus of many governments and the committee of nations at large. The global tool for measuring Environmental Sustainability ranks China among the highest on the global ecological footprints. It shows that a country like the United States draws its place due to its large consumption per person, while China on the other hand draws its place largely due to its enormous population. The complex nature of this value with regards to the increasingly fragile worldwide environment, suggests that the old paradigms of growth cannot work for China where the available resources face critical challenges of sustainability. China therefore presents a paradigmatic test case for environmental sustainability studies. Nigeria on the other hand shares peculiarity with China as the largest country in Africa with regards to population. Though Nigeria is presently a low technology based economy, however, with its abundant natural resources and the vision to joining the league of emerging global economies, Nigeria faces increasing challenges with the management of its share of environmental pollution. This paper aims at identifying the various resource and environment related challenges facing the Chinese and the actions put in place towards achieving a cleaner environment as a model for addressing sustainable environment issues in emerging economies like Nigerian.