The third area to watch is sustainable development.

With agreement on the United Nations' new Sustainable Development Goals, China can play a key role in demonstrating a growth path that eradicates extreme poverty while protecting the planet. How China responds could provide important lessons for other fast-developing countries. China has seen a remarkable tenfold increase in real GDP since 1990. Rates of extreme poverty have dropped from 84 percent in 1980 to just 10 percent today, according to World Bank figures. Can China lift that last 10 percent of its population out of extreme poverty and sustain improved livelihoods over the long run?

Emerging details of the 13th Five-Year Plan offer some clues. Many proposed programs bear directly or indirectly on poverty reduction, environmental stewardship or both. They include rural land reform, cleaner industrial development, promotion of new energy vehicles, protection of forests, efficient water management, and an improved social insurance system aimed at lifting people out of poverty.

As the world pivots from commitments in 2015 to action in 2016, the opportunities and challenges are vast. China's leaders have made their vision clear. President Xi said at the 2015 climate change conference: "The Paris conference is not the finishing line but a new starting point."

China has the chance to embrace a sustainable economic growth model that will benefit its people as well as become an example for others to follow. Let us hope the 13th Five-Year Plan turns this vision into tangible progress.

The author is executive vice-president and managing director of World Resources Institute.