The rapid growth of China's environmental industry shows the country's willingness to upgrade its development pattern, an expert at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi said on Thursday.

"China's environmental industry, in the last five years, has been growing on average by 15 percent to 20 percent annually," said Sheng Fulai, head of the Economic Research Unit of the UN Environment Programme. "Now it accounts for 6.5 percent of the country's GDP, which is quite significant."

This shows China's willingness to shift its development model toward a more sustainable path, he said.