China begins to assess "green GDP"

UPDATED: 16:35, December 14, 2005 People's Daily Online

China will work out its first assessment on pollution-based economic losses for 31 provinces, cities and regions in 2006, said Wang Jinnan, chief engineer of Chinese Academy of Environment Planning, State Environmental Protection Agency.

The survey, known as "green GDP" in China, is launched in December this year. Wang illustrated the gap in "green competitiveness" between China and developed nations. The economic growth is still based on high resource consumption, heavy pollution and poor output. The cost of development and environment is very high. And the "green competitiveness" varies geographically in China.

Research has shown that pollution per GDP has to be reduced by four to five times if China wishes to have its economic scale doubled in 2020 on the basis of the current level.

Wang explained two concepts introduced in the "green GDP" assessment for the 31 areas. A "green distance" is defined as the adjust value between environmental economic indicators (consumption of energy, water, and pollutants emission for per 10,000 GDP) and standards for an ecologically friendly province or city. The "green contribution" measures local GDP contribution to the national GDP while resources consumption to achieve that GDP against the country's total resources consumption is also taken into account.

Performance of a local economy is regarded as poor if its "green distance" is high. A local economy with a high "green contribution" rating uses water resources more efficiently and gives out less pollutant discharge.