China to Take Path of Sustainable Development: UNDP

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 29, 2002

China to Take Path of Sustainable Development: UNDP

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China should follow the principle of sustainable development amid rapid social and economic transitions because its environmental strategies will be significant to the whole world, says a new United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report.

The 2002 China Human Development Report, a biennial assessment since 1998 of China's development with suggestions from the international community, was issued Friday.

"China is at the crossroads towards sustainable development," though its economy continues to be one of the most dynamic in the world, says the 100-page report titled "Making Green Development A Choice".

It outlines two paths ahead for China: in the worst scenario, inappropriate policies, choices and critical uncertainties combine to lead to costly and irreversible damage to China's environment.

In the other, good economic and social governance leads to a slow, but steady, improvement in the environment and natural resource base.

Population, land, environment and food supply persist as the major impediments to China's long-term economic and social development, according to Arno Rosemarin from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), who led an expert team to produce the report.

Examining China's environment, the report says problems attributable to limited and unevenly distributed land, water, and forest resources were compounded by severely polluted air and water, further damaging health, agriculture and other sectors of the economy.

Although the Chinese people live longer and are healthier than 50 years ago, worsening air and water pollution in the wake of industrialization and urbanization has caused increased incidences of respiratory diseases and chronic illnesses such as cancer.

Air pollution causes 15 million cases of bronchitis, and 23,000 respiratory deaths and 13,000 fatal heart disease cases in China.

It also quotes a World Bank report as estimating that air and water pollution cost between 3.5 and 8 percent of China's gross domestic product.

The largest impacts are from health losses related to air pollution, indoor air pollution and chronic disease from water pollution, it says.

China also suffers much from desertification and shortages and pollution of water in its agricultural production and grain output.

The report says recent actions across China showed that its government and people are trying hard to grapple with the environmental challenges.

"For better or worse, changes in China's ecological environment and the living standards of its 1.3 billion citizens will have significant repercussions on the country and the rest of the world, " it says.

In an additional document, the UNDP says China has made an " encouraging" choice for it underlined sustainable development as a guideline and a national strategy for economic and social development in the 2001-2005 period.

China hoped to take the path of green development, and should be able to get out of the unfavorable situation, said Kerstin Leitner, the UNDP's resident representative in China.

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