Fueling the eco drive

The US expert visits local farmers to promote his environmental protection program in Shaanxi province in 2010.[Photo provided to China Daily]

China plans to launch a national emission trading system in 2017, part of a joint presidential statement issued by China and the United States in September 2015.

Dudek hopes it can finally break down the traditional mindset of competition between regions and help them communicate better.

Dudek stresses it's no longer enough for the government to just give out regulations, and it's important to design policies that will create incentives so that enterprises learn to respect the environment more.

"To make right things easy and wrong things hard - that's the way to achieve leverage," he says.

In 2007, he was appointed as one of the 23 members of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, an advisory body to the Chinese government on the environment and sustainable development issues.

Recognized for his work in China, Dudek was awarded the Friendship Award, the highest honor given by the Chinese government to foreigners for their contributions in social and economic development, in 2004.

"For me it is a kind of recognition, not of me personally, but of such ideas. It's a kind of validation that it is something important for China's future," says Dudek, who thinks himself as a representative of all the people making the same efforts.

According to Dudek, his long-term commitment to China naturally has extended to his family.

He and his wife have adopted two Chinese girls from East China's Jiangsu province. Nowadays, the family regularly has Chinese guests at home. The couple also tries to keep their children aware of Chinese culture and events in the country.

"China in some sense is my second home," he says.

"My experience here has been for most of the period of reform and opening-up. It is one of the most important parts of Chinese history. And, to be able to participate in it has been spectacular."