The report, jointly released by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) and the National Bureau of Statistics, indicates that environmental pollution cost China 511.8 billion yuan (US$64 billion) in economic losses in 2004, amounting to 3.05% of total economic output that year, said state media.

"This marks only the beginning of our efforts in a Green GDP calculation," said SEPA deputy director Pan Yue, adding that “our formula is still not complete and we have to keep working hard to improve it."

See full story

See related report:

Environmental pollution costs China 64 billion dollars in 2004