Sustainable development makes progress in China

Sustainable development for most Chinese cities posted steady growth in the past nine years, mainly driven by improvements in social and economic aspects, a report released by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company showed.

Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang Province, Zhuhai in Guangdong Province, Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, Weihai in East China's Shandong Province, Huzhou in Zhejiang Province, Zhongshan in Guangdong Province and Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province are listed as the top 10 cities, according to the 2016 Urban Sustainability Index Report released on Friday.

Xiamen in East China's Fujian Province, Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Fuzhou in Fujian Province, Beijing, Changsha in Central China's Hunan Province and Yantai in Shandong Province have fallen out of the top 10 list.

The report shows the sustainability ranking of 185 cities based on 23 indexes including their economy, society, resources and environment from 2006- 14. Compared with 2011, healthcare coverage and government research input saw substantial improvements in the period since 2014, while resource use and clean environment indexes showed slower progress, affected by setbacks in residential electricity use and air pollution, said urban China initiative research director Zhang Gengtian.

The report showed that gaps among the central, eastern and western regions have narrowed, with development increasingly balanced. However, there are great differences among urban clusters, with the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta urban clusters leading the list.