China has by its own admission failed to make any progress in protecting the environment in the past three years, despite government pledges to put the issue at the top of its agenda.
On Monday, state media cited an official report, the China Modernisation Report 2007, as saying the nation ranked 100 out of 118 countries in terms of environmental protection 鈥� the same level as in 2004.
鈥淐ompared with its social and economic modernisation, China鈥檚 ecological modernisation lags far behind,鈥� said He Chuanqi, head of the research group that put together the report, according to the official China Daily newspaper.
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The report was assembled by experts and academics from the Chinese Academy of Science, Ministry of Science and Technology and some of the country鈥檚 top universities, the paper said.
Industrial transformation
Large swathes of China are affected by chronic air pollution from factories, vehicles and coal-burning power plants. Water and land pollution has poisoned many other parts of the country.
The 鈥渆cological modernisation鈥� category measured indicators such as carbon emissions, sewage treatment and drinking water availability.
鈥淭he government needs to ensure that economic development will not result in further environmental deterioration in the next 50 years,鈥� He said.
But the report said that, by 2015, China鈥檚 social and economic indicators should be on par with developed countries in the 1960s, by which stage China will have completed its transition from an agriculture-based economy to an industrial one.
New Ministries
The report stated that China had done well at raising life expectancy, adult literacy and access to higher education, though work remained in other sectors, such as adjusting the proportion of the population living in the countryside. There was no elaboration on the latter point.
To better address China鈥檚 development problems, the report recommended the government set up three new bodies 鈥� environmental and energy ministries and a regional development agency.
After years of promoting economic growth at almost any cost, Beijing is now struggling to change official attitudes, despite a raft of new policies, including tying civil servants鈥� career prospects to their energy-saving achievements.
