About SoE China 1997

Background

The environment of the planet is in a crisis:

Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities now seem to cause a change in the climate and a global warming.
The ozone layer high up in the air, protecting life on the Earth from lethal ultraviolet rays from the sun is thinning.
Acid rain damages the soil, forests and health of plants and animals.
Toxic, transboundary emissions to air are a threat to health all over the world.
Eutrophication of water can make it undrinkable or unfit to use in other ways.
Discharges of toxic contaminants to air, soil and water may cause diseases like cancer, allergies, reduce the natural resistance against disease and damage the genes of all living organisms.
There is a widespread overconsumption of water, forests and fish resources, and whole species of animals and plants are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate, threatening the biological diversity, our common heritage.
Desertification and soil erosion threaten the agricultural land
Urban Environments is degraded by air pollution, noise and increasing amounts of waste
Coastal and marine waters are threatened by eutrophication and toxic wastes.

The majority of the scientists of the world fear that life itself as we know it today is severely threatened.

State of the Environment

In this situation it is of vital importance to analyze the present state of the environment. We have to find out where we are, to know where we want to go.

We all wish to improve the quality of our lives.
But we must see to that the economic growth is based on a healthy environment and a sustainable use of the natural resources.
To ensure that our children will have a future, development must be sustainable.

On this background, The United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, encourages all nations to make a status of their national environment. We must find out what has happened so far to our soil, water, forests, and the air in our cities. Then we must ask: What must be done to make the development sustainable?

The State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) of the People's Republic of China has taken this challenge seriously, and now presents:

The State of the Environment China 1997

Goal

The Goal of this report is to give a tool for the decision-makers and the people of China that increases awareness of the environment, making it easier to assess the present dangers, take the right precautions in time, and steer the development in a sustainable direction.

Vision

The vision is that within the next decades, polluted and toxic rivers and waters will again be clear, the air will be clean and fresh to breathe, the soils will be fertile, the forests will grow and be healthy, and the natural resources shall be used in a way that ensures there is enough also for future generations.

Responsible for this report:

Guo Xiaomin (SEPA/Planing and Financial Dep., Beijing)
Ding Zhongyuan (SEPA/Administrative Office, Beijing)
Jiang Xin (SEPA/Environmental Statistics Division, Beijing)
Luan Shengji (Environmental Science Center, Beijing University)
Wang Jianguo (SEPA/Information Technology Office, Beijing)
Chen Li (SEPA/Information Technology Office, Beijing)
Shen Naixing (SEPA/Information Technology Office, Beijing)
Liu Ning (SEPA/Chinese Research Academia Environmental Science, Beijing)
Wang Jinghao (SEPA/Environmental Statistics Division, Beijing)
Fu Qin (SEPA/Environmental Statistics Division, Beijing)
Ying Li (SEPA/Environmental Monitoring Division, Beijing)
Chen Shawei (SEPA/International cooperation Division, Beijing)

Advisors:

Sven Aake Bjorke (UNEP/GRID-Arendal)
Morten Sorensen (UNEP/GRID-Arendal)
Lin Zongtang (NPC/Environmental and Resources Protection Committee, Beijing)
Diwakar Dahal (UNEP/GRID-EAP)
Lorant Czaran (UNEP/GRID-Arendal)

The Text Editor:

Environmental Science Center, Beijing University

The Photos Editor:

Liu Qin
Chen Min

Notes:

The statistics used by this report do not include those in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao except for those specifically noted.

Copyright:

Texts and graphics may be copied to single papers on condition that credit is given to the source.
If you wish to use parts of the SoE report for your own printing/publishing or use the photos/graphics for your own web-pages, please contact SEPA for a separate agreement.

Overview

The report gives an overview over the major environmental issues in China. For more comprehensive information on the separate issues, the reader is guided to relevant libraries on the Internet or to relevant information sources.

Environmental indicators

An environmental indicator is meant to indicate the state or development of important aspects of the natural environment, what causes these changes, and how society responds to them.

Pressure - State - Response

This report is predominantly based on a cause- and effect chain, according to a Pressure - State - Response (PSR) concept.

Pressure: Human activities put pressure on the environment in different ways, e.g. through emissions of SO2 and NOx.
State: The pressure is reflected in an altered quality and quantity of the natural resources. E.g. increased acidity in fresh water.
Response: Society responds to limit these alterations or try to repair the damages on the environment. E.g . liming.

An environmental indicator steers action

The state of certain environmental indicators can be used to bring scientific findings from the field and lab to the general public and decision-makers.
To be effective, in the sense that the indicators steer action, the indicators should as a rule, have an explicit target group in a particular country or region in mind.

A set of indicators should not only give information on the development in specific environmental problem areas, but also give a general impression of the state of the environment. Ideally, a set of indicators is a means devised to reduce a large quantity of data to a simpler form, while retaining essential meaning for the questions that are being asked of the data.

Environmental indicators are used:

to assess environmental conditions and trends on a national, regional and global scale;
to compare countries and regions;
to forecast and project trends;
to provide early warning information, and
to assess conditions in relation to goals and targets.

Isolated assessment is problematic

Information on the environment may be difficult to evaluate in isolation. In answering questions such as: how bad or good is the situation? Is it possible to do better?”,etc, it is important to be able to compare the situation and development of various countries. Therefore, points of reference are needed. Preferably, a set of indicators for China should be the same as or closely related to the sets of indicators used in other countries.

Time series

It is also important to have the capacity to present long time series of the indicators. An early warning may be seen in changes in these time series. However, most of the processes at the basis of environmental degradation feature important time lags. These time lags separate opportunities for present action from the manifestation of effects, and sometimes last several generations. These delays are caused by a multitude of factors, such as gradual buffer depletion, long residence times of chemicals and slow transport in soils and groundwater. Everything may seem to function normally until, suddenly, the buffer zone becomes worn down.

Criteria for Indicator Selection

An environmental indicator should :

provide a representative picture of environmental conditions, pressure on the environment or society's response;
be simple, easy to interpret and able to show trends over time;
be responsive to changes in the environment and related to human activities;
provide a basis for international comparisons;
have a target or threshold against which to compare it so that users are able to assess the significance of the values associated with it.

Analytical soundness

An environmental indicator should :

be theoretically well founded in technical and scientific terms;
be based on international standards and international consensus about its validity, and
lend itself to linkage with economic models, forecasting and information systems.

Measurability

The data required to support the indicator should :

be readily available at a reasonable cost/benefit ratio;
be adequately documented and of known quality, and
be updated at regular intervals.

(From OECD 1993c)

SoE China 1997