B. Mezgebu
2 July 2008
analysis
Addis Abeba — It has been mentioned often, more frequently in recent times,that China's average GDP growth from 1980 to 2000 of 9.6% should in reality be 6.8%; if "green" GDP were factored into the equation. Not to be unfair to China, this phenomenon is not unique to it alone; other fast-growing countries would end up with less percentage points if such a calculation were applied. But still, China, as the country with the fastest growth rate, has in some of its provinces up to 33.4% loss from its GDP due to environmental costs and natural resources losses.
But then the country, so intent on unbridled export strategy for a couple of decades has, it seems, second thoughts now about the dangers threatening its natural resources and the environment in recent times. It intends to use different accounting in reckoning its development statistics.
In 2004, as evidence, its supreme leader Hu Jintao, underlined the need for "scientific concept of development". The slogan was interpreted to mean that the country should face the music regarding the state of its environment and natural resources. One thing its top political leaders could do in tangible terms is to restrain overenthusiastic party functionaries and civil servants from dismissing the environment as secondary or even immaterial.
One of the hallmarks of Chinese society and the way it works is the quota system. What normally takes place on any given workday is that quota allotments and fulfilling those allocations takes precedence of everything else. The idea being that people will then do everything to reach the target, including riding roughshod over the environment, break basic rules of conduct and every once in a while, even cook the statistics.
So, when the idea of "green GDP" was devised, it was hoped that all that would stop. That is to say, no bureaucrat would, as if by habit, try to enhance his or her career by bulldozing critical cautions on behalf of the environment. Reckless development on the back of environmental ruin would no longer be an automatic path to glory.
Practically this may not be, by any means, easy to implement. In one article entitled, The greening of China, The Economist described the matter thus, " Such a figure would be calculated by subtracting the cost of the natural resources used and the pollution caused from regular GDP. If only it were that simple. From calculating the market value of the extinction of a species to the cost of soil erosion resulting from the felling of trees, the exercise is riddled with complexity. China's normal GDP figures often prompt suspicion, particularly those produced by local governments, without adding a whole new layer of numbers even more prone to manipulation and dispute".
What can we learn here in this country then, from what the Chinese have instituted even if it is on pilot basis? How can we make sure that development doesn't negate all environmental commonsense?
It was recently reported, for instance, by Fortune, a weekly English language newspaper, of June 29, 2008, that the indigenous acacia forests are being decimated in the Rift Valley at Abernossa, a ranch that served as a livestock research site, giving way now to a new business investment by a Pakistani Company. Many NGOs and environmental groups have strongly objected the decision.
It is not that the proposed investment in the area is bad. The argument here is that the company was allowed to take over, without first conducting environmental impact assessment. And if the company or the regional officials claim assessment has been done, what does the report say then?
So can we learn anything form China's new direction? Yes, possibly the following: one, no development activity is important enough or urgent enough to necessitate a total disrespect of due concern about the natural resources and the environment, both in the short and long term. Not that we had to wait until the Chinese had done it to internalize that fact; because many countries in the West and elsewhere have been following the principle.
Second, we should perhaps realize that individual people and even institutions, in their enthusiasm to meet development quotas at any cost, tend to shove aside all concerns about the conservation of natural resources. They must be somehow reined in.
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