New report shows China’s ecological footprint doubled

http://www.wwfchina.org/english/loca.php?loca=520


New report shows China’s ecological footprint doubled
10 June 2008

Beijing, China – China’s average ecological footprint has doubled since the
1960s and now demands more than two times what the country’s ecosystems can
sustainably supply, a new report released today finds.

The Report on Ecological Footprint in China, jointly commissioned by China
Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED)
and WWF, is the first comprehensive report about China’s footprint. It gives an
overview of the factors that determine the country’s growing ecological deficit,
beginning in mid-1970s, and shows innovative paths for China to achieve its
development goals in a sustainable way that ensures the future generations have
the natural resources they need to prosper.

According to the report, China now uses 15 per cent of the world’s total
biological capacity. The analysis in this report finds that people of China have
an ecological footprint of 1.6 global hectares per person in 2003 (the last year
for which figures are available), which means each individual needs 1.6 hectares
of biologically productive land to support their lifestyle demands. The figure
is still lower than the world average of 2.2 global hectares per person, ranking
China the 69th of the 147 nations measured that year. But it nonetheless
presents challenges, considering China’s large population and the robust
economic development.

“It’s a critical period in coming 20 years for China to realize its sustainable
development, which is determined by important indicators including the balance
between the utilization efficiency of natural resources and the Earth’s
regeneration capacity improvement,” said Zhu Guangyao, Secretary General of
CCICED. “We hope this report will serve its reference accordingly.”

Two general strategies are presented in the report for China to start with, the
“easy” things and “slow” things that respectively refer to simple, cheap and
popular steps like investing in clean technology and changing to
energy-efficient bulbs and decisions that are made today but have future
impacts. The report recommends a CIRCLE approach that highlights Compact urban
development, Individual action, Reducing hidden waste flows, Carbon reduction
strategies, Land management and Efficiency increases for China to achieve its
sustainable goals.

“The report findings have portrayed how much natural resources China is using
for social and economic development. It’s the first-ever effort to gather and
analyze such necessary information to reach that understanding and pioneers an
innovative approach based on China’s factual conditions,” said one of the report
authors Xie Gaodi at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Nature Resources
Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Meanwhile, the report shows that the large population gives the Asia-Pacific
region the largest ecological footprint compared to any other regions despite a
relatively low level on individual basis.

“The report is an important first step for all of us,” said WWF-China Country
Representative Dermot O’Gorman. “With this report and the partnership with
CCICED and Global Footprint Network, WWF will continue to work with key
stakeholders to explore an innovative and sustainable development path in china.”

For further information, please contact:

Tan Rui, Communications Officer, WWF-China
Tel: +86 10 6522 7100 ext. 3813
E-mail: rtan@wwfchina.org





http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg19826603.300-is-china-a-climate-criminal.html

Is China a climate criminal?
11 June 2008
From New Scientist Print Edition.

IS CHINA an environmental pariah or not? Now there's more evidence on both sides
of the argument.

China's average ecological footprint has doubled since the 1960s, says a joint
report from the environment group WWF and a Chinese government agency, the China
Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. The
average footprint per person, however, is still smaller than the world average,
as well as being only a third that of a European and a sixth that of the average
US citizen.

The ecological footprint is a measure of the amount of global resources a
country uses relative to the land area those resources take to produce. But it
is not a cut-and-dried science, and some of its measurements are controversial.

"Some of the measurements used to calculate ecological footprint are controversial"

For instance, the study says China runs an "ecological deficit" with the rest of
the world, because its footprint is twice its land area. By that assessment, it
is a worse offender than some much richer countries that use more resources per
head but have larger land areas - including the US.

From issue 2660 of New Scientist magazine, 11 June 2008, page 5
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