REPI-Based Evaluation for Resource-Efficient and Environment-Friendly Society in China

Abstract

It is an inevit'ble option for China to build a resource-efficient and environment-friendly (REEF) society, which is determined by China’s realistic conditions. Whereas improving the resource and environmental performance (REP) is the heart of and key to building an REEF society. In this paper, we present a resource and environmental performance index (REPI) to measure the progress toward REEF society and make comprehensive evaluation for the REP of 59 countries, China and its 31 provinces respectively. At the same time, the empirical analysis of the relationship between their respective REPI and per capita GDP was developed. The results show that: (1) China’s REPI has dropped steadily since 1980 by an average annual decrease of 4.9%. But compared with developed countries, its economic growth pattern is still very extensive, so much so that it has become one of the countries with the poorest REP in the world, which has brought negative effects on the improvement of its world competitiveness. (2) China’s REP presents a spatial differentiation pattern with the eastern China being higher than the western China, so the growth pattern of the western China is more extensive than that of the eastern China; (3) REPI is inversely related to per capita GDP or the relationship between REPI and per capita GDP follows the power function with negative exponent by and large not environmental kuznets curve (EKC), which indicates, to a certain degree, that it is impossible for China to surpass or deviate from the conditions of its current development stage and development level in the process of building a REEF society. However, the resource- and energy-intensive industrialization stage may be well shortened and the world competitiveness and sustainability may be effectively enhanced by strengthening structural adjustment and technological innovation, improving institutional arrangements and adopting a combination of well-matched measures.