Latest comments posted about After green GDP, what next? on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1219-After-green-GDP-what-next- http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1219-After-green-GDP-what-next- Evaluating performance using Green GDP is still a planning way to approach environmental problems. It depends absolutely on the functioning of the government, while ignores the subjective initiatives of firms themselves. At the mean time, there are too many problems in its actual implementation. This approach is probably fundamentally wrong. Moreover, in China, SEPA itself is powerless. If SEPA raised a concept called Green GDP without the support of other powerful departments like the Ministry of Finance and the Development and Reform Committee, no one will really treat it seriously. In order to protect the environment, we should think more in economic terms, employing more economic tools to control pollution. For example, environmental tax can be introduced to firms, forcing them to really include environmental effects into operational costs, thus their decision making process. Only within this market mechanism can firms and other members of the society really shoulder the responsibility of environmental conservation. cnwangyang@163.com Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:24:31 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4220 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4220 Comment 6 offers a way forward. Politicians love uncorrected GDP since it adds up both productive and unproductive costs, magically turning damage into a positive indicator. Whether government policies work wonders or wreak everything, GDP tends to keep going up. Politicians won't give this up easily but there are ways to try. Firstly you need to show that GDP as usual is a dead end. The key is that it doesn't measure economic inactivity - when damage makes materials, ecosystems, land, waters, people and communities unavailable to contribute to tomorrow's GDP. The Stern report warns that this could cut GDP by up to 20% just from climate effects alone. The second trick is given in comment 6. The relevant cost to quickly build into economics is the cost of prevention. Knowledge about damage has been around for decades and has brought only minor tinkering improvements. The third step is to 'internalise the externalities' - to allow the price of preventing problems to be built into prices. This is far more powerful than trying to correct GDP. New forms of economic instruments are available which could do this, turning China's lofty goal of 'circular economics' into a reality and allowing economic growth to continue sustainably. James Greyson www.blindspot.org.uk Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:28:32 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4218 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4218 Very clever explanation about why China might need/find useful Green GDP even if western countries don't use it. I think whats also needed is to talk about the benefits. I also wonder about how to ensure the integrity of green GDP results. Surely we can all see the enviro degredation anyway, so why do we need to focus on the cost, when whats more important is focussing on implementing prevention and clean-up solutions as fast as possible? Wed, 15 Aug 2007 06:52:58 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4195 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4195 It is a good comment by way of figuration. The elegance and spirit of this nation with old civilization is being encroached by anxiety and panic; And its beauty is damaged by pollution and excessive resource consumption. Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:08:33 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4168 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4168 The 3rd comment is very interesting, as abstract conceptions have been made clear and embodied by metaphor. Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:34:37 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4174 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4174 There is a young man lived in the West. He comes from a small but wealthy family and works very hard to feed everyone in the house. When this young man step into middle-age, the family was enlarged and he earned more property for the family, but his healthy was declined very much due to the overload of work when he was young. Now there is another young man in the East. He was from a huge and declined family. He loves his family very much and worked 100 times harder than others in order to feed his brothers and sisters, and also to rebuild the reputation of his family. He spent 14 hours to work a day which made he has not time to rest and recovery. His hard work gained great achievement in a short time, but he and his family does not really realized that the excessive work is nibble his health, depleted his energy. Sadly, one day when someone told him the health situation, what he worried is not his health, but the task to help his family and rebuild the reputation. … I believe everyone knows development is the really goal. But what does it mean “DEVELOPMENT”? To make more money, or to live in modern flat? Maybe it means to be mature, more understand how to balance the gain and loss. However, one may never know what does “gain” mean before you make it and the taste of “loss” before you did. This is the way to mature, we can not jump from the extravagant teenage to the considerate adult. Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:32:39 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4165 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4165 Don't know what to say! Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:11:26 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4164 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4164 It feels bad to see the setback of China's green GDP. I agree that effective ways must be figured out to force local governments to do the right things. Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:47:05 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4163 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1219#comment-4163