In 2015, it is predicted that Shanghai will be the first city in China, if autonomous regions are excluded, to realize zero population growth, according to a report from the Beijing Times citing the report on China's scientific development in 2010 released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Thursday.



Shanghai will be followed by the Beijing-Tianjian region in 2018 and Guizhou will be the last to realize zero growth in 2029.



The report said that China must develop in three basic steps in an orderly fashion and achieve three basic objectives to realize its green development.



The first step is to achieve zero total nationwide population growth while greatly enhancing population quality in 2030. The next step is to achieve zero growth of resource and energy consumption coupled with a substantial increase of social wealth by 2040.



Then it should achieve zero growth of ecological degradation with significant improvement of environmental quality and ecological safety by 2050.



Autor: Li Tiezheng, People's Daily; Translated by Zhao Chenyan