Environmental Impacts Of Economic Growth In China

In recent years, with the development of economy, China's environmental situation is deteriorating. Early mode of extensive economy has begun to show its negative influence on environment; local governments have boosted their economic growth at the cost of regional environment. As the environmental pollution caused by economic development become obvious, local governments attach greater attention to environmental protection and people have an ever increasing demand on environmental quality.The dissertation conducts an empirical analysis based on the selected panel data of 29 provinces in China. By collecting the industrial indicators from 1990 to 2005 and choosing typical economic and environmental indicators, the paper intends to test if the Environmental Kuznets Curve which represents the relation between China's current economic growth and its environment is inverted U-shaped, upward, downward or even; thus, make an analysis on the status quo of China's economic development and environmental pollution. In addition, according to the distribution of industrial structure in different regions around the country, the paper studies the impact of economic growth on environment.Through research and analysis, the author holds that, in the long term, the relation between China's environmental quality and its economic level is represented by an inverted N-shaped curve, which can better explain the relation than the U-shaped curve and is more in accordance with the actual situation of developing countries.The economy of eastern China has reached a certain level and arrived at the second turning point of EKC and its pollution emissions tend to be reduced while EKC of Midwest is still going upwards and will remain so in a long period.Therefore, government should adopt varied policies of environmental protection to different regions, take environmental protective measures right away at current stage of economic development, optimize the industrial structure while expanding the scope of economy, improve production technology and eliminate the root cause of environmental pollution, so as to shorten the ascending branch of the inverted U-shaped curve or lower the flex point of the curve and thus achieve sustainable economic development in China.In addition, for those industries that are favorable to economic development and environmental protection, the government should adopt the policy of encouragement and guidance to push forward the upgrading of industrial structure; for those high-polluting industries that are unfavorable to sustainable development, the government should lay down strict environmental rules to increase investment in environmental protection and restrict pollution emissions; for those industries with low output value that are indispensable for economic development, the country should take appropriate protective measures to ensure their stable growth. Only by coordinating the development of all industries can we optimize the industrial structure of our nation as a whole and achieve sustainable development of economy.