policy arrangements, like the ecological compensation policy mainly based on transfer payment, as well as the introduction of environment and resource taxes. As the environmental benefits are shared by whole society, in this sense, environmental equity can also reflect social fairness. To build an environment-friendly society is an important part of the Scientific Outlook on Development.

Apart from its significance to politics and the economy, is environmental protection also of importance to culture and values?

The Scientific Outlook on Development actually conforms to environmental protection in terms of culture and values. The Chinese nation is the world's only nation that has carried on its single cultural and national heritage for thousands of years in the form of a state. This should be attributed to the rich ecological wisdom in Chinese culture. In the West, the industrial civilization has come to its end after hundreds of years of expansion, because the limited resources the earth can offer cannot meet the infinite appetite of capitalism. Therefore, Western traditional industrial civilization is changing toward a conservation-