By Hao Zhou (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-07-18 11:41

China will work to establish an economy and environment evaluation system in ten years, said Zhou Jian, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

SEPA and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) jointly held a press conference yesterday to report OECD's appraisal of Chinese environmental performance.

Related readings:  Green GDP shown the red signal  China bars loans to polluters  Energy consumption up 8.4% in 2006  China bans production and import of ozone depleting substances  Inefficient factories to be phased out  Nation targets 3 areas to cut energy use

Zhou said the system will assess the green gross domestic product (Green GDP), reform on the environmental statistics system, official leaders' performance, as well as China's environmental protection.

Last fall, SEPA and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) publicized the first Chinese Green GDP report, which suggested the country lost a total of 511.8 billion yuan (US$67.6 billion) in 2004 due to environmental pollution.

Zhou confirmed that the second Green GDP report is already complete, but remains unpublished as it includes divergences in calculating methods and progresses between the SEPA and NBS.