China thinks about GDP excluding climate-Economists
2023.02.23 02:55
China thinks about GDP excluding climate-Economists
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – China has been urged by influential economists to adopt a new development model based on “wellbeing” rather than GDP growth in order to achieve its net-zero emissions goals by 2060 and ward off climate change’s growing threats.
The team, which includes two former World Bank chief economists, also called on China to set a total consumption cap on fossil fuels and a specific “pathway” for reducing emissions in a report that was released on Thursday.
The Chinese government has already received the report and its recommendations. Co-author Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in Britain, stated to reporters that he hoped it would contribute to China’s “five-year plan” for the years 2026-2030.
The report stated that the old development model is putting the world at “grave risk,” despite driving rapid growth in China over the past four decades.
China wants to stop emitting carbon dioxide by 2030, but it’s still not clear when that will happen. Stern stated that in order to bring “clarity” to its decision-making, it needed to establish a specific numerical target.
The report also urged China to prioritize public transportation and establish a timetable for the end of fossil-fuel vehicles. It stated that low-carbon agriculture, including plant-based meat and dairy, should also be promoted by China.
In 2005, as concerns grew about the harm that rapid industrialization was doing to the environment, China started experimenting with “green GDP.” Environmental losses were estimated to be 3% of GDP in a government report from 2006, but critics believed the actual figure to be much higher.
Even though the green GDP project was scrapped in 2009, China said in 2013 that it would no longer follow the “growth at all costs” model and that GDP would no longer be the only thing officials would be evaluated on.
A pilot “gross ecosystem product” that can be applied to individual districts, rivers, or development projects has recently been used in central China’s Hubei province to reflect the environmental costs of development.
According to data released on Monday, China is home to 16 of the 20 regions in the world that are most at risk from climate change.
