Over the next few decades, China will continue to face the daunting macroeconomic challenge of simultaneously achieving its ambitious economic and climate goals. One significant opportunity is to place urbanisation that supports prosperity and prioritises climate safety at the heart of its Five-Year Plans.

The China programme, led by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Tsinghua University, focused on providing new evidence to support the development of China’s national urban policy. While this focused on compact, green, low carbon and smart urban development, there remain significant opportunities to go faster and further in a number of key policy areas and there remains a gap in its actual implementation.

The Coalition worked to re-galvanise Chinese leadership on sustainable urbanisation through a major research and analysis effort spanning urban governance, finance, energy, industry, and transport. Our efforts built on existing case studies and contributions at the national level by Coalition partners and other major institutions, and involved key ministries at the heart of a multi-level engagement strategy focused on driving policy impact. Our China country programme culminated with recommendations to the Chinese government to accelerate better urban development.