A recent survey shows that most Chinese people think it is necessary to calculate the green GDP, the China Youth Daily reported.

About 2,504 people took part in the survey, which was jointly conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Investigation Center and Tencent Information Center. The result of the survey was published last week.

Days ago, Pan Yue, vice minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration said that environmental problem had seriously restricted socio-economic development, that it had also damaged China's state image in the world and China had to address the environmental problem if it wanted to fulfill peaceful development and green development (development with little or no pollution).

"While China's GDP grows at 8 percent-12 percent every year, economic loss caused by environmental pollution also accounts for 8 percent-13 percent of the GDP in a year," he said.

In the survey, 85.2 percent of the respondents say that in their region, it is quite common for local governments to maintain GDP growth at the cost of environmental protection. 79.6 percent of the respondents think that the adoption of green GDP will help change local government's viewing GDP growth as the only way to demonstrate their achievements.

Only 4.4 percent of the respondents agree with the view that "since no governments in other countries have so far adopted any green GDP calculating method, it might not be proper for China to do so." In addition, only 6.7 percent of the respondents support the view that "it is not proper to publicize green GDP figures at present, since the theories and calculating method related with green GDP are still not mature."

(Chinanews.cn August 1, 2007)