From Asia Times Online:
With its annual gross domestic product (GDP) growing by a breakneck 8% on average in the past 25 years, China has emerged as the picture of economic wonder. But its prosperity has come at a heavy cost to its ecology and natural resources. Alarmed by the warnings of green doomsdayers, the government now seems to have finally woken up to the problem, setting in motion a total turnaround from “black development” to the “green development” model.
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Vice President Pan Yue told a press conference on February 28 that SEPA and the National Bureau of Statistics would enforce a pilot green GDP accounting system in 10 provinces and municipalities in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. This would mark China’s first step to evaluate the tremendous cost of environmental pollution in the course of its breathtaking economic progress.
Green GDP is the balance after the imputed environmental cost and environmental resource protection expenditure are deducted from GDP, highlighting the interaction between the environment and the economy. The lower the environmental cost and the higher the proportion of green GDP to conventional GDP, the more wholesome the economic growth. Conventional GDP accounting as an indicator of economic performance fails to factor in the resultant impact on ecology. This oversight threatens sustained economic growth and leads to environmental degradation as economic development gathers pace.
