IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i1d10.1007_s10668-023-03906-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation demonstration zones for sustainable development agenda: a national pilot practice in China

Author

Listed:
  • Peng Wang

    (Qufu Normal University)

  • Junli Li

    (Qufu Normal University)

  • Jinjin Hou

    (Qufu Normal University)

  • Wei Sun

    (Shandong Friendship Publishing House)

Abstract

The proposal for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mapped out the direction for global sustainable development, prompting governments around the world to take action. The Chinese government promulgated a national pilot practice program, the Innovation Demonstration Zones for Sustainable Development Agenda (IDZSDAs), which has become a unique banner for the implementation of the SDGs after five years of development. This paper aims to summarize how China’s experience is worth learning from and provides a decision-making reference for the sustainable development of other similar countries. Based on the characteristics of the development of IDZSDAs, this paper analyzes the connection between IDZSDAs and SDGs at different stages, discusses the uniqueness of the former, and puts forth some suggestions for improving its development. The results show that China’s experience mainly includes two aspects: first, the construction theme of the IDZSDAs is directly related to one of the SDGs; and second, the bottleneck problem restricting local sustainable development is solved using innovative systematic solutions that have regional characteristics. After years of practice, the IDZSDAs have many achievements; however, certain problems still persist. These include the small quantity of IDZSDAs, the difficulties in declaration new IDZSDAs, the insufficient innovation in the development of IDZSDAs, and unbalanced development in different zones. In light of these issues, four suggestions are put forward to promote high-quality development of the IDZSDAs and contribute more China’s experience to the realization of SDGs.

Suggested Citation

  • Peng Wang & Junli Li & Jinjin Hou & Wei Sun, 2025. "Innovation demonstration zones for sustainable development agenda: a national pilot practice in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 141-156, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03906-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03906-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-03906-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-023-03906-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03906-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.