By Zhang Wen

After earlier attempts at establishing a "Green GDP" fell victim to political infighting in 2007, Chinese academics and policy makers have been putting forward various alternative measures of development to serve as broader measure of social development than the closely watched gross domestic product indicator used by economists.

The latest offering comes from scientists at China's Academy of Science (CAS) who last week published "China\'s Scientific Development Report 2011", the latest in their annual series of reports on China's overall development. 
This year's report, which was published by the Intercross-Science Research Centre for Natural Science and Social Science and a research institute in Tangshan, ranks all of China's 31 provincial-level regions according to a new "qualitative GDP" indicator calculated for 2010.

The report's authors based their assessment of "qualitative GDP" on 5 main factors - economic quality (经济质量), social quality (社会质量), environmental quality (环境质量), people's living standards (生活质量) and the quality of management (管理质量). In all, the authors, working with the latest census figures, looked at 15 indicators to calculate their index, including energy and water consumption, the ratio of fiscal revenue to GDP, urbanization rate, registered unemployment rate, per capita income and life expectancy.

According to the list inluded in the report:

The top ten ranking provinces (cities) were: Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian, Shandong, Liaoning, Hainan.

The bottom ten ranking provinces (cities) were: Jiangxi, Hunan, Shanxi, Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Guizhou, Gansu, Ningxia. 

"The public should have an objective view of GDP, so that they neither blindy worship or totally renounce it as an indicator" said Niu Wenyuan (牛文元), the lead author of the report and a researcher at the Institue of Policy and Management at the Chinese Academy of Science, told China National Radio.

Despite a spate of media reports appearing in Chinese media discussing the latest report, given the factors used to rank provinces look a lot like the five that were used to calculate a "Scientific Development Level Index" as part of last year\'s Scientific Development Report, it doesn't appear likely that the "Qualitative GDP" indicator will be anything more than a flash in the pan.

Another example of a new indicator is the "green development" index that was released by the National Bureau of Statistics and two universities at the end of 2010. Like "qualitative GDP",  the "green development index" ranks China's 31 provincial-level regions according the aggregate of over 50 environmental indicators, ranging from per capita CO2 emissions to the share of environmental spending in overall fiscal expenditure.

Over 7 years ago, senior Chinese officials, including Premier Wen Jiabao, were actively pushing for the introduction of a new "Green GDP," but efforts by the forerunner to China's current Ministry of Environment Protection and the bureau of statistics met resistance from local governments and other interests and the project was sidelined.

Only one report attempting to measure China's "Green GDP" was published in 2006 based on 2004 data.

This brief was edited by Paul Pennay

Links and Sources
China National Radio: 我国首次为“GDP质量”排名次 北京上海浙江位列三甲
Newsweek: Where Poor Is A Poor Excuse 
Reuters: Tired of choking on growth, China launches green GDP
Jamestown Foundation: China\'s Policy Impasse: The Case of the "Green GDP" Initiative
China Youth Daily: 【中国青年报】中科院发布内地各省份GDP质量排行
sciencenet.cn: 《中国科学发展报告2011》发布 京沪浙GDP列前三
sciencenet.cn: 《中国科学发展报告2010》公布
Institute of Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Science: Niu Wenyuan
Green Development Index: 2010中国绿色发展指数年度报告:省际比较