Green GDP is needed to adjust officials' concepts of political
achievement, says an article in Southern Metropolis Daily.
The following is an excerpt:
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said recently that it
was hard to demonstrate the economic cost of environmental
deterioration, as there is no worldwide standard for the
calculation of Green GDP. Besides calculation problems, another
reason given by the NBS for postponing the Green GDP was that no
other country had officially publicized their results.
However, the calculation of Green GDP in other countries is
normally done by non-governmental organizations, so it is not
common for governments to publicize the results. To realize
sustainable development, China has a greater demand for a Green GDP
calculation system.
Governments normally use economic growth to measure the
performance of its officials. But damages made to the environment
and ecology as well as people's health cannot be reflected in the
GDP calculation.
It is a pity that GDP growth figures have become the strongest
index for measuring officials' performances. Some of them openly
exploit the environment to attract high-polluting companies then
obstruct environment departments from enforcing the law. Officials
get promoted because of the rising GDP growth, while the
environment is ignored.
Today, the central government has put the implementation of the
scientific development concept as a high priority. Regional
governments' mere pursuit of GDP growth must be turned round and
the system for measuring the success of officials must be
changed.
The introduction of a Green GDP system would be the best way to do
this.
(China Daily July 25, 2007)