SHANGHAI - With its fast urbanization and unequivocal commitment to a low-carbon economy, China has a major role to play in the international race toward a "green" society and is helping to drive the development of new technologies and products to meet the growing demand for ecological solutions.

"We're having a green race going on... about which country is to be the leading supplier of solutions in a world that is going to be resource- and carbon-constrained. China is in a position to lead the world in that race," said Bjorn Stigson, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a coalition of some 200 companies dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development.

With China's 12th Five-Year plan (2011-2015) set to build up the long-term competitiveness of Chinese energy industry in the international market, it would pave the way for the country to become "a leading exporter" of green technologies and products, said Stigson, who co-chaired the Low Carbon Economy Task Force under the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a high-level advisory body conducting research and providing policy recommendations to the Chinese government.