What Is Green GDP?

Green GDP is a core indicator in the comprehensive environmental economic accounting system. It integrates resources and environmental factors based on current GDP. Specifically, green GDP is the cost of economic losses caused by factors such as environmental pollution, degradation of natural resources, low education, uncontrolled population, and poor management. This indicator essentially represents the net positive effect of national economic growth. ^[1]

Green GDP

Green GDP is when a country or region considers natural resources (mainly including land, forest, minerals,

Green GDP, the current

Several basic concepts mainly involved in green GDP accounting are:

The development of sustainable income can be traced back to some scholars in the 1970s

In 1996, Wackernagel et al. Proposed "ecologically imprinted" metrics.

In 1997, Constanta et al. Systematically designed the global measurement for the first time.

In the early 1990s, only

Problems with green GDP

Over the past two decades, China has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and one of the countries with the highest domestic savings rate (referring to bank savings as a percentage of GDP). According to World Bank statistics, since 1978, China s high-speed economic growth with an average GDP growth rate of 9.83% ranks second in 206 countries and regions around the world (second only to the African resource country Botswana). However, due to China's waste of resources, ecological degradation and severe environmental pollution; the authenticity of the "nominal domestic savings rate" has been largely offset. In other words, a significant portion of China's domestic savings rate is exchanged for natural capital losses and ecological deficits. At least 18% of China's economic growth GDP is obtained through "overdraft" of resources and ecological environment. The deterioration of resources and ecological environment has reduced the real savings rate.

In the face of this pressing issue, Chinese scholars have not waited for nothing, and have been studying it for years. Professor Niu Wenyuan, chief scientist of the sustainable development strategy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the leader of the sustainable development strategy research group, pointed out that from the government level, the theory and practice of China's national economic accounting has roughly gone through four stages; the material product balance was implemented from 1951 to 1981 Table system: From 1982 to 1991, the transition period from planned economy to market economy: from 1992 to 1995, the market economy accounting system was officially launched; from 1995 to the present, it has initially entered the "green GDP" stage. At the current stage, the energy prices, resource prices, environmental prices, ecological compensation rules, corporate cost accounting, green taxes and fees, and WTO green arbitrations formulated by the state must be based on the green accounting system. Thanks to the efforts of scholars and experts, China has begun preparations for "green accounting."

Since the reform and opening up, China's land desertification has accelerated, causing soil erosion and sandstorms to spread from west to east, but these are not reflected in GDP. Countries such as the UAE rely on selling resources such as oil and timber to maintain GDP growth. A few years later, what happens if the resources are sold out? Can such GDP reflect the actual wealth of society and the development of social productivity?

In short, looking at GDP from a social perspective, it counts positive and negative output equally in economic indicators. For example, the income from education and labor services for the elderly and children is of equal value to the manufacture of weapons and cigarettes. From an environmental perspective, it regards natural resources as free wealth, freely extracting and using them, but it does not consider and reflect the resource quality degradation caused by resource depletion and pollution caused by economic activities. From an economic point of view, it only records visible and priceable labor services, while non-market economic behaviors such as housework, women's childbirth, and volunteer services that contribute to society are excluded, partially or completely ignored. .

There are five types of environmental pollution in China: water pollution, air pollution, solid waste pollution, pesticide pollution and noise pollution. Among them, the losses caused by water pollution mainly include damage to human health and labor capacity, loss of crops, loss of animal husbandry, loss of fisheries, loss of factory shutdowns and increase in industrial water treatment costs. The damage caused by air pollution mainly includes human health damage, sulfur dioxide, nitride damage to crops, acid rain damage to forests, acid rain damage to building materials and buildings, and increased costs for urban household hygiene. The losses caused by solid waste are mainly land occupation. Among them, the damage caused by weathering and combustion to the atmospheric environment and rainwater showers on the water environment have been included in the first two items. The losses caused by pesticide pollution are mainly the pollution of crops by organic chlorides. The loss caused by noise pollution is mainly the damage to the human nervous system and the loss of sudden cardiac death caused by noise. There are also environmental dispute losses due to various environmental pollution.

7 systems to ensure green development

In accordance with the requirements of the new environmental protection law implemented on January 1, 2015, local governments are responsible for the environmental quality of their jurisdictions, establish a monitoring and early warning mechanism for the carrying capacity of resources and the environment, implement a responsibility system for environmental protection, and an evaluation system. influences.

In order to implement these requirements, the Ministry of Environmental Protection restarted the Green GDP Research Project at the end of March this year and is committed to incorporating indicators such as resource consumption, environmental damage, and ecological benefits that reflect the state of ecological civilization construction into the economic and social development evaluation system.

In the second half of 2015, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will support the Environmental Planning Institute to take the lead in advancing the pilot and research work, guide each pilot area to formulate specific work plans, and conduct training in accounting technical specifications for the pilot areas.

Ecological environmental damage compensation is an important reform led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the first half of the year. To cope with the reform of compensation for ecological and environmental damage, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has carried out the work of ecological and environmental damage appraisal, promoted the environmental damage appraisal into the judicial appraisal management system, carried out research on the technical methods of environmental damage appraisal and evaluation, and guided local governments to carry out typical case evaluations, such as Wuwei Ronghua Environmental damage assessment of the Tengger Desert pollution incident in industry and trade. According to reports, in the second half of the year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will continue to promote the connection between the environmental damage assessment management system and the judicial assessment management system, explore the establishment of a national environmental damage assessment expert committee, and continue to promote research and model tools in related fields such as soil and groundwater environmental damage assessment. Development.

In addition, in the first half of 2015, the Ministry of Environmental Protection cooperated with the Exploration of the Compilation of Natural Resource Balance Sheets reform work on the Natural Resource Balance Sheet Compilation Plan (Discussion Draft) and the Pilot Project of Compiling Natural Resources Balance Sheets proposed by the National Bureau of Statistics. Plan (Discussion Draft) ", to organize proposals for amendments to the plan" Water Resources Quality and Change Table ".

According to the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" for national environmental protection laws and regulations and the construction plan of environmental economic policies, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will further improve environmental economic policies in the second half of the year and promote market-based solutions to environmental problems. Combined with the "Comprehensive Environmental Protection List", study the inclusion of more highly polluting products in the scope of consumption tax collection; in the study of certain products enjoying consumption tax reduction and exemption policies, take environmental protection as an important prerequisite; and issue "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Enterprise's Environmental Credit System", Promote the construction of corporate environmental credit information systems and interface with national credit information platforms; gradually establish a system for updating and publishing information on environmental pollution liability insurance insured companies, and continue to publish a list of national insured companies to the end of the year to guide the public to pay attention to corporate environmental risks and their responses means. ^[4]

Green GDP improvement measures

Under the unified planning and organization of the State Council, after 2000, large-scale work of returning farmland to forests, grassland, and ecological immigration has begun, which also belongs to a form of ecological compensation.

China has entered the WTO and is in line with the world economy, and "green accounting" is the guarantee of convergence.

city Development

One. It has been two years since the preparation of "green accounting" in China. The macro theory is already at an advanced level in the world, and the implementation of the micro system still needs a process. It is valued by the state and the government, and I believe that more enterprises will be in the near future. It will be submitted in a green accounting report, and our country will be in line with the world economy with "real GDP".

China is struggling to cope with the environmental consequences of rapid economic development, which has caused a lot of concern. It is said that 10 provinces are already trying to measure and report "green GDP". "Green GDP" is the center of China's latest five-year plan, and economic growth of conservation and environmental protection is its top priority. It is estimated that China's energy consumption per unit of GDP is three times that of the United States and nine times that of Japan. The Chinese government hopes to reduce energy intensity by 20% in five years, which is not easy even for a planned economy. So why does China achieve its goals?

First, given China s statement at the Montreal meeting, China should consider implementing the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol, although as a country outside of Annex I, China does not have such an obligation. In this way, China will recognize its responsibility as the world's second largest carbon dioxide emitter, which may be more important than the appreciation of the yuan, and these measures are also necessary for self-sustainment. Experts in China who understand the policy discussions said that China has forecasted energy options for the next 50 years and will control per capita carbon dioxide emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Obviously, this is why China announced in Montreal that it is already cutting greenhouse gases and acknowledges the severity of its air pollution.

Second, China can establish an internal emissions trading mechanism that operates according to China's own rules. After piloting this mechanism in the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong, its scale may grow to the largest in the world within 10 years.

Third, China s automobile engines must make a leap, first using hybrid power and then using hydrogen fuel. China's car growth forecast is staggering, which may make China the only country that can make these technologies economically viable. For example, a scheme can be adopted to allow buses and government fleets to adopt these technologies, or to provide tax deductions to owners of these vehicles, or both.

Fourth, China should connect all of them through technologies that have been integrated into China's economy and lifestyle. The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) has shown that technology can reduce China's carbon emissions while limiting oil and gas imports to 30% of consumption. This only costs 3% to 5% more than the "business as usual" situation; if "business as usual", China will bear a huge burden of emissions, and more than 80% of oil and natural gas will depend on imports. A focus on alternative energy sources, especially clean coal (including coal gasification), coupled with carbon capture and storage, will help reduce emissions and dependence on imported energy.

China can also learn from Japan, the country with the most energy-efficient country. China's industrial giants can join hands with Japanese groups seeking new markets for innovation. China's largest automaker FAW has started production of Toyota's Prius hybrid Chinese oil producer CNOOC in Jilin with Japan's Toyota, which has slightly desperately sought to ensure long-term supply failure. To maintain economic growth, the Chinese dragon is looking for more and more energy, and energy efficiency can help curb the social and geopolitical consequences of this situation. The Chinese government's move to bring energy prices closer to market value will also help. The higher the energy efficiency, the less energy we need and the less we care about the future.