China’s surging economy has made it the world’s biggest energy consumer and by some measures its biggest polluter. Now a former senior official has put a price tag on the cost of that pollution: between 5 and 6 per cent of GDP last year, equal to some Rmb2.6tr – or $410bn, an eighth of the country’s gargantuan currency reserves.
The figure is the biggest estimate of the economic damage done by pollution ever cited by a Chinese government official.
It comes as public concern is rising over the health impacts of unclear air and water and as policy makers try to rebalance the economy toward slower, greener growth.
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