Development of Eco-industrial Parks in China

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, China has made outstanding progress in the development of eco-industrial parks. Their number exceeds 110 parks, which is more than in any other country. They play an important role in improving the environmental performance of industrial clusters and transport hubs in many areas of the PRC. Their environmental performance indicators are increasing year by year. Their contribution to the economic and environmental performance of the territories is the subject of many studies. However, most papers study individual types of effects or the effectiveness of individual eco-industrial parks. This article systematically explores China's experience in the development of eco-industrial parks in terms of the dynamics of their total number, distribution across all territories of the stratum and all groups of effects. The study is structured as a comprehensive literature review using qualitative and quantitative tools to synthesize existing findings and official documents. As part of the study of temporal dynamics, the average duration of the creation of an eco-industrial park and its tendency to increase to 10 in 2022 were identified. In 2015-2022 a trend was found to limit park approvals and to focus on accelerating the certification of already approved parks. Eco-industrial parks are located in the most ecologically unfavorable provinces, which indicates a country-wide planned effort to improve the environmental situation with the help of eco-industrial parks. Over the past 5 years, a trend has been revealed to expand the geography of parks. The synthesis of studies on the effectiveness of parks indicate the high potential of parks to create positive economic, production and environmental effects. At the same time, the absence of documented social effects was revealed. The analysis of the eco-industrial park program in China made it possible to formulate recommendations for managing similar programs in Russia.