ABC (Australia)
September 8, 2006

‘We’ve been looking forward to this report for a long time,’ says environmental journalist Wang Yongchen. ‘Obviously it shows that the Chinese government is making this problem a priority. Otherwise they wouldn’t have published such a big figure of loss.’

MARK COLVIN: Environmental pollution cost China about $80 billion in 2004. That’s more than the total GDP of some OECD countries in the same period. A figure of $80 billion for pollution comes from a new Chinese Government report, which tries to put a figure on the ecological effect of the country’s extraordinary economic boom. The authors say the "green GDP" calculation, as it’s called, is a world first but because statistics are incomplete China could actually be facing an even worse situation. John Taylor reports from Beijing. JOHN TAYLOR: … Wang Yongchen co-founder of the Chinese environmental group, Green Earth, welcomes the report. (Wang Yongchen speaking) "We’ve been looking forward to this report for a long time" she says. "In recent years Chinese GDP growth has been maintained a very high level. But at the same time the environmental problems in China are becoming more and more serious," she says. … "Obviously it shows that the Chinese Government is making this problem a priority. Otherwise they wouldn’t have published such a big figure of loss," she says