Pollution, Ecological Damage Cost China 3.5 Percent of GDP, Official Academy Says

摘要

Pollution and ecological damage cost China an estimated 1.539 trillion yuan ($247 billion), or about 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, in 2010, according to an academy under the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The figures, the first of their type reported since 2006, were compiled by the China Academy for Environmental Planning and reported March 25 by China Environmental News, the ministry's official news agency. A summary of the findings on "green GDP"-a calculation of how much environmental damage costs the country-was posted on the academy's website in January. It indicated that the cost of "environmental degradation" increased from 511 billion yuan ($88 billion) in 2004 to 1.103 trillion yuan ($177 billion) in 2010. Economic losses from damage to forests, wetlands and grasslands and from mining accounted for 441 billion yuan ($70 billion), the summary said. A 2004 figure was not included.