Xie Zhenhua, the head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, emphasized at the 8th Green China Forum on August 28 that China is committed to advancing strategic environmental assessment (SEA), which is integrated into the planning process. He stressed that environmental considerations should be more systematically embedded in macro-level decision-making to ensure sustainable development.
Pan Yue, the deputy director of the Bureau, highlighted that while China has long implemented environmental assessments for construction projects and contributed positively to environmental protection, there are still limitations in terms of scope, depth, and industrial linkages. These shortcomings have made it difficult for environmental assessments to play a significant role in macroeconomic decisions. In the past, major economic policies often lacked the inclusion of strategic environmental assessments, leading to widespread environmental pollution and ecological damage during implementation.
For instance, when central and western provinces planned energy, power, and heavy chemical industries, they overlooked the impact of these highly polluting sectors on fragile ecosystems. Limited freshwater resources, in particular, struggle to support such large-scale developments, and the resulting ecological damage can take generations to reverse. Additionally, China’s growth in energy and raw material production far outpaces its GDP increase. For example, China consumes 7.4% of the world's crude oil, 31% of raw coal, 30% of iron ore, and 25% of alumina, yet its GDP accounts for only 4% of the global total. The energy consumption per unit of products in eight high-energy-consuming industries is 47% higher than the world average.
If this model continues, by 2010, China’s reliance on foreign imports of petroleum, iron ore, copper, and aluminum is expected to reach 60%, 57%, 70%, and 80%, respectively. Therefore, strengthening strategic environmental assessments is essential to create institutional safeguards for integrating environmental and development decisions, transforming sustainable development from abstract ideas into real actions.
At the forum, it was also noted that China's current approach to SEA starts with planning-based environmental impact assessments (EIA). Compared to traditional project-based EIA, planning EIA offers a broader scope and higher level of evaluation. It systematically evaluates potential environmental impacts of strategies and plans and incorporates these findings into final decisions, thereby enhancing the quality of strategic choices. Currently, China focuses on assessing construction projects and development plans, but in the future, it will also evaluate policies that significantly influence development.
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