China recently announced it will elevate environmental protection to a “pillar industry” that would receive government support in the form of tax breaks and subsidies to tackle dire pollution. There are staggering amounts of money involved. China has vowed to raise the total output of environmental protection industries to 4.5 trillion yuan (US$730 billion) by 2015, an average annual increase of 15%. To put that in some sort of perspective, that is equivalent to nearly 9% of China’s GDP in 2012. It is equivalent to nearly 50% of Australia’s GDP in 2012. On improving air quality alone, China says it will spend US$275 billion over the next five years. That’s roughly twice the size of its annual defence budget. The Economist points out that even by Chinese standards this is an enormous sum. theconversation/environmental-protection-industry-a-job-creator-17040?
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 21:29:14 +0000
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