BALANCING ACT
While China endeavors to ditch the growth-at-all-costs economic model, balancing growth and environmental protection in times of economic slowdown will inevitably be fraught with challenges.
Last year marked the weakest annual expansion in 24 years due to a housing slowdown and falling external demand and a tepid global recovery. Growth further slowed to 7 percent in the first half of 2015.
According to a report published by the MEP last week, measures to combat pollution, including closure of outdated production facilities and caps on pollutant emissions, have a negative, albeit short-term, influence on economic growth.
The report estimated that gross domestic product (GDP) had decreased 186.9 billion yuan (29 billion U.S. dollars) due to the closure of outdated facilities, 0.12 percent of GDP, during the 11th Five-Year Plan period from 2006 to 2010.
The clean-up process, though painstaking, is an inevitable path China must take to achieve sustainable growth in the long run.
"Though the move curbed the growth of traditional industries like thermal power, steel and concrete over a short time, it boosted some emerging industries such as services and environmental protection in the long term," it noted.
The advantages of an improved environment for economic development overweigh the disadvantages, said the report.
"In the past, we are only preoccupied with 'gold mountain, silver hill,' but we must realize that lush hills are themselves valuable treasures," Yang said.
