Innovation in constructing energy-saving buildings is crucial to China's sustainable development, foreign and domestic energy experts said on Friday.

Experts came to the consensus at the international forum on "Innovation for Sustainable Development" at Shanghai Tongji University.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and United Nations' Environment Program (UNEP) Executive Director, said Asian countries especially China are growing at a fast and unprecedented scale.

Steiner said China's building space will increase by 2 billion square meters every year, and that more energy efficient building solutions were needed, as a UNEP report revealed.

"A lot of 'urban dreams' in the 20th century are proven to be 'urban traps' now, although many of such dreams were implemented into reality out of the best intention from the urban policy makers and architects," Steiner said.

Steiner said Chinese architects play an important role in sustainable growth, and that they need to avoid falling into those "urban traps".

Wan Gang, minister of science and technology and president of Tongji University, said China faces the pressure of a huge population and limited resources, and needs innovative technological talent, especially architects to find solutions.

(China Daily May 19, 2007)