Editor's note: China Daily is publishing a series of stories to illustrate the country's efforts to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

Having engaged with China since 1980, international advocate for green development Martin Lees is a firsthand witness to how the country has transformed over the past 40 years, from being a place with very few high-rise buildings and few private cars to a strong nation seeking to lead the global charge against climate change.

Having traveled to China over 100 times, the former United Nations assistant secretary general possesses a profound understanding of the transformative processes at play when it comes to the environment, highlighting the nation's fundamental shift in economic mindset and how that holds promise for addressing the global climate crisis.

China's extensive experiences in this transformation have positioned it as "absolutely central to having any chance of solving the problem", according to Lees. Its role is particularly crucial in guiding indebted developing nations toward environmentally sustainable development paths, he said in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

When Lees first visited China, he was greeted by a scene that would seem like a distant memory in today's modern age in Beijing, which "is hard for young people to imagine".

Towering skyscrapers were few and far between. The streets teemed with a sea of bicycles and horses and carts, he recalled. The absence of private cars was conspicuous, with only a handful of official vehicles navigating the roads.

Back then, "China's priorities were unambiguously economic growth and employment", and "environmental damage was considered to be simply an inevitable cost of economic growth", he said.

Despite the country establishing the National Environmental Protection Agency for environmental governance in 1988, the body didn't have any great power or influence. "It was marginal," he said.

Environmental management was marginalized also because of the mindset around the development trajectory in Western countries, where they grew their economies and then only worried about the environment after they'd become rich.

But Lees gradually saw a consistent change in that way of thinking, as an over-a-decade-long debate continued on the global stage, in which he was personally involved. He tried to make it clear that, "you cannot achieve economic development if you wreck your environment".

"China has understood that, and is probably the first country to understand that," he said.

The country has understood very well that it is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and the interest of China in solving this problem is not just an international question, but very much a question that affects the success of the domestic economy, he said.

The gradual shift in thinking first saw China upgrade the NEPA to the State Environmental Protection Administration, "which was a big step-up, but still not as powerful as a ministry", he said.

However, the country was to roll out a lot more measures in the years to come, according to Lees.

"When the issue ever emerged, China took decisions which were, I don't say necessarily unique, but which were very different from the way this problem was handled in other countries," he said.

"Therefore, it was very successful in my opinion, in tackling the climate change question."

Recognizing confronting climate change as an issue that should be built into the whole strategy for economic growth, he said, China has adopted an all-of-government mechanism in which a premier-headed leading group consisting of all ministries concerned was established.

The leading group Lees mentioned was launched in 2007 with 30 ministries and commissions as its members. Its remit is to respond to climate change, conserve energy and reduce emissions. Similar leading groups were also set up in all provincial regions across the country.

"So they put the climate issue right at the core of government strategy... I think that was very different from most countries who considered climate to be an environment problem and put it into the environment ministry where of course there was no power to solve the problem," he said.

Lees described the significant leapfrog in the country's environmental industry following the shift in thinking.

When he proposed the development of an environmental industry to Chinese authorities in the 1990s, "they didn't understand what the hell I was talking about", he said.

But after he talked with officials from the State Environmental Protection Administration, the administration decided to convene a conference themed on this strange term, which resulted in an item in the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) to start the process of building environmental industries in China, he said.

Over only a short period, he said solar and wind power, electric vehicles and environmental technologies have become major parts of China's economy.

"I just want to underline how thinking has evolved in China. That shows you that in a very short time, China moved from not understanding the need to do it, to doing it very successfully," he noted.

On the global stage, Lees sighed at the unfavorable developments regarding tackling climate change.

It's clear from a scientific point of view that, despite all the efforts that have been made worldwide, the world has not done much to solve the climate crisis. "We are still increasing the level of emissions, and we are still destabilizing the global climate," he said.

China's role will be essential against this backdrop, and, because climate and the environment are part of a bigger picture, there are very many things that China could do to help the international community to tackle these problems, he stressed.

As the largest user of coal, China is still contributing enormously to the problem in spite of its immense, successful efforts to limit emissions, he said, adding what China does is fundamentally important because of the scale of its impact on the global environment.

He also highlighted the potential role of China in supporting indebted developing nations in their fight to cope with the climate crisis.

The biggest problem now lies in the developing world, in terms of the scale of emissions and the needs of the poor, he said. Investment in green development in developing nations can produce a bigger payoff than the investment in rich countries.

He said there's an opportunity for China, with its enormous experience, to collaborate to help developing states address these problems.

"Frankly, it's essential that China takes a lead on these questions, because you have the knowledge, you have the capability and you have the resources to help," he noted.

"It means you have to combine your immediate economic advantage of selling cheap electric vehicles, such a short-term, immediate trade advantage... with what I would call a longer-term strategic view of solidarity to build a stable world in which human activities can be matched with the capacity of nature to observe our impacts," he said.

This is an opportunity for China to look beyond immediate issues and map out a strategy, he underscored.

"In this respect, you don't just help the developing countries, you help the whole world," he said.