Mankind Will Awaken to Ecological Civilization
427
are used for assessment. The new form of civilization—ecological civilization—also
needs an assessment system that matches its theories and strategies, and GEP (Gross
Ecosystem Product) is exactly an exploration and innovation toward that goal. The
UN-released 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the “Rio + 20” resolution
and the 18th CPC National Congress all highlighted the importance of correcting
the mistakes arising from the excessive emphasis on GDP. Long years of practices
indicate that a fundamental measure to correct those mistakes is establishing a new
assessment system consistent with the laws of ecological civilization. Other factors
aside, there are several main reasons why it is so difficult to promote “green GDP” in
recent years. First, officials still think in the framework of GDP-based assessment.
Despite many attempts, “green GDP” remains hard to promote basically because
people haven’t jumped out of the old GDP-oriented framework or the theoretical and
assessment system of commercial civilization. Second, an important way to calculate
“green GDP” is “deduction,” meaning output value with negative ecological and
environmental effects is deducted from GDP. This is one of the reasons why the
local areas and authorities are reluctant to practice “deduction.”
An assessment system complying with the laws and values of ecological civilization should be able to reflect natural and ecological endowments and also accord
with the land and space plans made according to national strategy. Based on the
explorations and practices in several locations in China over the past period of time,
it seems GEP can reflect the values and norms for the assessment of ecological civilization while achieving innovation and breakthrough at the same time. Although
it’s hard to replace GDP completely at present, the inherent natural resource endowments of different provinces and regions and the strategic requirements of national
land and space plans can be evaluated with GEP. Take Qinghai, a province located on
the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in western China, for example. It’s hard for it to catch up
with the coastal provinces in the east on GDP no matter how hard it works because
the two regions feature completely different geographical conditions and natural
endowments, yet it may beat the eastern coastal provinces by a large margin on GEP
contribution.
Therefore, GEP not only overcomes the difficulty in practicing “deduction,” but
also better reflects different natural endowments and conditions of each area as well as
the varying requirements of national space plans. In this way, GDP and GEP are both
adopted as indicators, so that each region and province can exert its strengths based
on local conditions and be “horses for courses” during this period of transformation
and transition. In this process, the stimulant role played by the GEP “baton” must
not be neglected as it provides not only the critical basis for the assessment of
distribution system, but also an important basis for assessing the performance of
local governments while fully demonstrating equity. GEP looks at the basics. It
assesses the total output value of ecological system (originally called the ecological
system’s service function), which essentially refers to the total output value of the
ecological product it has produced, and that should be entitled to a reasonable return
rather than being reduced to the idea of “ecological compensation” in the GDP or
green-GDP-based assessment system.
427
are used for assessment. The new form of civilization—ecological civilization—also
needs an assessment system that matches its theories and strategies, and GEP (Gross
Ecosystem Product) is exactly an exploration and innovation toward that goal. The
UN-released 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the “Rio + 20” resolution
and the 18th CPC National Congress all highlighted the importance of correcting
the mistakes arising from the excessive emphasis on GDP. Long years of practices
indicate that a fundamental measure to correct those mistakes is establishing a new
assessment system consistent with the laws of ecological civilization. Other factors
aside, there are several main reasons why it is so difficult to promote “green GDP” in
recent years. First, officials still think in the framework of GDP-based assessment.
Despite many attempts, “green GDP” remains hard to promote basically because
people haven’t jumped out of the old GDP-oriented framework or the theoretical and
assessment system of commercial civilization. Second, an important way to calculate
“green GDP” is “deduction,” meaning output value with negative ecological and
environmental effects is deducted from GDP. This is one of the reasons why the
local areas and authorities are reluctant to practice “deduction.”
An assessment system complying with the laws and values of ecological civilization should be able to reflect natural and ecological endowments and also accord
with the land and space plans made according to national strategy. Based on the
explorations and practices in several locations in China over the past period of time,
it seems GEP can reflect the values and norms for the assessment of ecological civilization while achieving innovation and breakthrough at the same time. Although
it’s hard to replace GDP completely at present, the inherent natural resource endowments of different provinces and regions and the strategic requirements of national
land and space plans can be evaluated with GEP. Take Qinghai, a province located on
the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in western China, for example. It’s hard for it to catch up
with the coastal provinces in the east on GDP no matter how hard it works because
the two regions feature completely different geographical conditions and natural
endowments, yet it may beat the eastern coastal provinces by a large margin on GEP
contribution.
Therefore, GEP not only overcomes the difficulty in practicing “deduction,” but
also better reflects different natural endowments and conditions of each area as well as
the varying requirements of national space plans. In this way, GDP and GEP are both
adopted as indicators, so that each region and province can exert its strengths based
on local conditions and be “horses for courses” during this period of transformation
and transition. In this process, the stimulant role played by the GEP “baton” must
not be neglected as it provides not only the critical basis for the assessment of
distribution system, but also an important basis for assessing the performance of
local governments while fully demonstrating equity. GEP looks at the basics. It
assesses the total output value of ecological system (originally called the ecological
system’s service function), which essentially refers to the total output value of the
ecological product it has produced, and that should be entitled to a reasonable return
rather than being reduced to the idea of “ecological compensation” in the GDP or
green-GDP-based assessment system.