Keynote Talk: Measuring China's Circular Economy

China is pioneering a new sustainable development model which has the ability to overcome current environmental and resource management problems, while achieving improvements in resource productivity and eco-efficiency. This model, formally accepted in 2002 and termed the “circular economy”, is understood to mean the realization of a closed-loop of materials flow in the Chinese economic system. Successful implementation of this model is seen as one way China can “leapfrog” the environmental damages typically seen as economies industrialize. This speech introduces an emergy based circular economy indicators, including the objectives, policies and measures, so that the country can ‘leapfrog’ its way from environmentally-damaging development to a more sustainable path. The speech then identifies a series of barriers and challenges to the implementation of the emergy-based indicators In China.