Timeline

Entries in red indicate that a timeline event happened in China and the East. Entries indicated in blue took place in the US, Europe, and the West. Entries in black don't fall under these categories or are international in nature.

  • April 2024

    Earth Charter hosts “Reimagining Education for Ecological Civilizations” conference

  • October 2021

    Ecological Civilization Forum held by UN Convention on Biological Diversity

  • October 2021

    Xi Jinping gives the keynote at the Leaders' Summit of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

  • March 2021

    At the ninth meeting of the Central Finance & Economics Committee, Xi Jinping makes it clear that carbon reduction would be the focus of ecological civilization construction in the “14th Five Year Plan” (spanning the years 2021-2025).

  • October 2019

    At the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave crucial instructions to organize and summarize new ideas, new judgments, and new measures, which promoted improvement of

    the ecological civilization system.

  • August 2019

    Clayton and Schwartz publish “What is Ecological Civilization: Crisis, Hope, and the Future of the Planet” 

  • March 2018

    The first session of the 13th National People’s Congress passes a proposal to write “Ecological Civilization building” into the Constitution

  • October 2017

    The 19th National Congress of the CCP emphasizes that “building an ecological civilization is a millennium plan for the sustainable development of China.” Chinese universities / regional governments begin establishing centers for the study of Xi Jinping

    Thought on ecological civilization

  • December 2015

    President Xi Jinping attends the Paris Climate Conference, where he delivers a speech titled "Work Together to Build a Win-Win, Equitable and Balanced Governance Mechanism on Climate Change"

  • July 2015

    China launches wide-ranging reforms to address major environmental issues. Proposals cover protection of natural resource rights; establishment of a national parks system; better & stricter protection of arable land & water resource management;

    establishment of green financing system; improvement of environmental compensation mechanisms

  • June 2015

    “Organic Marxism” book translated and published in Chinese. Influences Chinese discussion of ecological civilization.

  • June 2015

    John Cobb, Jr. hosts “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization” the largest conference on “ecological civilization” at Pomona College. The conference “sought to build a systematic foundation for the global transition to an ecological

    civilization in the years to come.” Zhihe and Mei Wang were principal organizers

  • June 2015

    Philip Clayton and Wm. Andrew Schwartz co-found the Institute for Ecological Civilization (Eco-Civ)

  • June 2015

    Ecological Civilization conference held at Yale-Beijing Center organized by the Pulitzer Center and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

  • February 2015

    Under the Dome (Chinese: 穹顶之下; pinyin: Qióngdǐng zhī xià) released: a self-financed Chinese documentary by Chai Jing concerning air pollution in China. Over 300 million views within a week.

  • September 2014

    Clayton and Heinzekehr coin the term “Organic Marxism” in their book “Organic Marxism: An Alternative to Capitalism and Ecological Catastrophe”

  • November 2013

    At the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, Xi Jinping announces the implementation of “ecological civilization reforms” to reconcile contradictions between economic development and the environment

  • November 2012

    The 18th National Congress of the CCP makes ecological civilization one of the country’s five national development goals and includes the goal of ecological civilization in its constitution and five-year plan

  • October 2007

    At the 17th National Congress of the CCP the proposal to "build an ecological civilization" was put forth for the first time with clear principles, concepts and goals

  • July 2006

    International Forum on Ecological Civilization annual conference established in Claremont, CA

  • May 2006

    Pan Yue, former deputy director of China’s State Environmental Protection Agency publishes article: “On Socialist ecological civilization” in the Chinese journal Green Leaf

    that lays the foundation for the ideological and political framing of ecological civilization.

  • October 2003

    In a keynote delivered at the 1st forum of “Greening of China,” Pan Yue introduced the concept of “ecological industrial civilization”

  • May 1998

    CCP begins to adopt an environmentalist perspective in development strategy—

    Begins to use the terms “ecological civilization” and “environmental culture”

  • May 1995

    “Ecological Civilization” appears for the first time in an English language book:

    Roy Morrison’s Ecological Democracy—Linked to Whitehead’s process philosophy

  • May 1987

    Chinese agricultural economist Qianji Ye uses the term for the first time in China

  • January 1984

    Term “Ecological Civilization” emerges in article by Soviet environmentalists:

    “Ways of Training Individual Ecological Civilization under Mature Socialist Conditions”