Popularizing and adopting new ideas in environmental
policy-making is vital to sustain healthy development of China's
society and economy. Otherwise, good development strategies, dubbed
by top officials as "scientific concepts of development," may
simply descend into slogans, said Vice Minister Pan Yue of the
State Environmental Protection Administration.
Pan called for speeding up research on and the implementation of
the green GDP concept.
Green GDP is an amendment to traditional GDP calculations that
deducts the costs of environmental factors occurring during
economic growth.
Some analysts say that if environmental costs are deducted,
China's average annual GDP growth during the 1985–2000 period would
drop about 2 percentage points.
Niu Wenyuan, of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, points out that while China's economy has
grown rapidly, its economic achievements have been gained through
high consumption of resources and ecological degradation.
"This mode of development cannot last over the long term," Niu
said at a Green China forum held in Beijing in April.
Using the new way of calculating GDP, environmental protection
would naturally be included in the system for assessing officials'
job performance, said Pan. Factors such as changes in air and water
quality and the number of environmental complaints should be added
to these standards, and officials who seek GDP growth at the cost
of the environment should not be promoted, he said.
Feng Dongfang, a researcher with the Policy Research Center,
agreed. She said environmental protection is too small a part of
the country's current performance appraisal system.
Pan also indicated that the government should give more
encouragement to public participation in environmental
protection.
According to the law on environmental impact assessment, which
took effect last September, governmental bodies should hold
hearings to solicit public opinion on development programs that may
cause damage to the environment before such programs are
approved.
Despite that, Pan said that the role the general public plays in
environmental protection still needs to be strengthened.
He also suggested an ecological compensation mechanism.
Rural residents consume less than urban ones, discharge fewer
pollutants and possess less environmental protection
infrastructure, he explained. Therefore, a fixed channel through
which cities compensate rural regions for environmental damage
should be established.
Similar mechanisms may be formulated between eastern regions and
western ones, upper reaches and lower reaches of rivers, or
developed countries and developing ones, he added.
Pan also said that the government should give priority to
developing new energy sources and a circular economy, while
creating financial and other incentives for environmental
protection.
Xia Guang, director of the Policy Research Center, lauded Pan's
ideas, but he said it will take time for them to become reality. A
great deal of research remains to be done, he noted.
(China Daily July 20, 2004)