Vice Chairman of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Xie Zhenhua on December 10 said China has made constructive efforts in curbing climate change, and China will take a path of new industrialization, which features intensiveness, intelligence, green development and low carbon.

According to statistics from the NDRC, China experienced an average economic growth as high as 10.2 percent from 1991 to 2003 with an average annual growth of energy consumption of 6 percent. As China has entered the mid- and post-stage of industrialization, carbon emissions would multiple if the current urban development pattern is unchanged.

Andrew Steer, President of World Resources Institute suggested a new model of urban development characterized by compact urban growth, connected infrastructure and coordinated governance. "The new urbanization should highlight the need to address urban sprawl, congestion and worsening pollution," he said at a session held during the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Lima, Peru.

Xie said low carbon pilot programs have been carried out in 6 provinces and 36 cities, in order to figure out how to promote low carbon growth in areas of different development levels.

While government should play a guiding role by maintaining the consistency of related policies, companies, who are the main constructer of the cities, should also be held accountable for green urban development, said Xie.

"Looking at the largest 100 companies in the world, 60 of them have set clean energy targets," said Al Gore, Chairman of the Climate Reality Project, suggesting that the world must turn away from continued obsession of carbon-based energy and turn towards new energy sources.

"As famous Chinese author Lu Xun said, hope is like a path in the countryside, originally, there was no path, but once people begin to path, a way appears," Al Gore commented on the exploration of green development models.

(Reporting from Lima, Peru)