A recent survey shows that most Chinese people think it is
necessary to calculate the green GDP, the China Youth Daily
reported.
About 2,504 people took part in the survey, which was jointly
conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Investigation Center and
Tencent Information Center. The result of the survey was published
last week.
Days ago, Pan Yue, vice minister of the State Environmental
Protection Administration said that environmental problem had
seriously restricted socio-economic development, that it had also
damaged China's state image in the world and China had to address
the environmental problem if it wanted to fulfill peaceful
development and green development (development with little or no
pollution).
“While China's GDP grows at 8-12 percent every year, economic
loss caused by environmental pollution also accounts for 8-13
percent of the GDP in a year,” he said.
In the survey, 85.2 percent of the respondents say that in their
region, it is quite common for local governments to maintain GDP
growth at the cost of environmental protection. 79.6 percent of the
respondents think that the adoption of green GDP will help change
local government’s viewing GDP growth as the only way to
demonstrate their achievements.
Only 4.4 percent of the respondents agree with the view that
“since no governments in other countries have so far adopted any
green GDP calculating method, it might not be proper for China to
do so.” In addition, only 6.7 percent of the respondents support
the view that “it is not proper to publicize green GDP figures at
present, since the theories and calculating method related with
green GDP are still not mature.”
(Chinanews.cn August 1, 2007)
