Cleaner Greener China

In another sign of the media picking up on the eNGO story, the China Daily released an interview of Tsinghua University Professor Chang Miao.

With a background in environmental management and business, the Q&A higlighted some of the challendges that China faces going forward.  It is an interview that I suggest taking the 5 minutes to read as there are some interesting bits that add color to the overall picture.

Q: Although Green GDP has been regarded as an important index for local economy, it has in fact failed. What is the great difficulty when implementing the policy?

A: Green GDP is a good idea, which can reflect the local governments’ consideration of the environment and an assessment of their performance in environmental protection. The problems are, first, there are some different approaches in the research field for green GDP. Different research institutions have different statistics. No creditable or authority statistics exist. The research methods themselves still need to be studied. It is not mature in terms of research.

Second, revealing the information may put pressure on local governments, as it may reflect their efforts on environmental protection. The statistics are fairly sensitive.

It’s possible to change the pattern of the green GDP, for example, by the Quantitative Examination System on Comprehensive Renovation of Urban Environment, which is promoted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The system includes many indexes.

Greener People environment