Ecology: China admits it has failed badly

For the past 3 years, China was unable to make any progress in protecting its environment, its target set last year to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 4% and pollutant emissions by 2% was not met either and China remains one of the world’s worst nations.

Countries were ranked on 30 indicators, including carbon dioxide emissions, daily sewage disposal rates, forest coverage and drinking water safety. China lags far behind in its ecological modernization as compared to its social and economic modernization. It was found that China produced 20 times more industrial waste than Germany; its air pollution was 7 times more serious than that in France, Canada and Sweden.

The Chinese Academy of Science, together with the think tank has proposed the setting up of 3 new ministries to give the government more opportunities to solve China’s environmental problems.The Chinese leadership under President Hu Jintao has made balancing environmental protection with economic growth a top priority but all these might already be too late.

I think that China was unable to make any progress as it might be too obsessed with its advancement and development that its ecology and pollution caused by that advancement/development was neglected. If China were to concentrate more on reducing pollution and saving the environment, this problem might be solved in a much quicker than expected.