The Empirical Research On The Relationship Between Economic Growth And Environmental Quality In Zhejiang Province

Zhejiang has gained remarkable achievements which are continuously acceleratedindustrialization and urbanization and rapid economic growth since the Reform and Opening up.However, with the rapid development of economy, resources and environment problems becamemore serious day by day. In accordance with the guiding ideology of national the TwelfthFive-Year Plan, with scientific development as theme, we must insist on constructing resourceconservation and environmentally friendly society as the important focus of acceleratingtransformation of the mode of economic development. For applying the basic national policies ofresource conservation and environmental protection thoroughly and meeting the requirements ofmaintaining sustainable development, Zhejiang must accelerate transformation of the mode ofeconomic development, so as to realize the coordinated development between economic growthand environment.It is crucial that Zhejiang must recognize the internal relation between economic growth andenvironmental quality, change the uncoordinated developing situation, draw up economicdevelopment plan scientifically, let economic growth on the basis of improved environmentalquality, and maintain sustainable development. Based on this, the paper studied the relationbetween economic growth and environmental quality in Zhejiang through quantitative research,and revealed the long-term relationship between them. This satisfied the macro managers toformulate economics and environment policies, so as to realize the sustainable developmentbetween economics and environment.This paper, on the basis of referring to the similar research literature at home and abroad,using statistical data about economic growth and environmental quality from 1985 to 2009 inZhejiang with the help of statistical and quantitative analysis methods, did the empirical studyfrom the following aspects:Firstly, the paper gave descriptive statistical analysis of the economic growth andenvironmental quality in Zhejiang for getting a whole recognition of Zhejiang's status. On thebasis of the above, the paper analyzed the relation between economic growth and environmentalquality by doing co-integration test, error correction and Granger causality test, revealing thequantitative relation between each environmental quality indicator and economic growth. Theconclusion was that there was co-integration relationship between environmental qualityindicators and the province's GDP; the short-term fluctuation of economic growth andenvironmental quality showed deviation from the long-run equilibrium in some extent; economicgrowth was the Granger Cause to the total discharge of industrial wastewater, industrial waste gas emissions, sulfur dioxide emissions and industrial solid waste emissions. Meanwhile, econometricregression model also made clear that the emissions of industrial wastewater, industrial waste gas,industrial solid waste were not only affected by the current economic growth but also bypre-economic growth and pre-emissions of the same kind pollutant.Secondly, based on the causal relationship theory between economic growth andenvironmental quality, the paper found that the total output value in Zhejiang was the cause ofchange in comprehensive environmental quality through Granger Causality Test.Thirdly, the paper analyzed the economic growth deeply respectively from the scale effect,structure effect, technological progress effect, opening effect, energy saving and emissionreduction of environmental policy on how the economic growth affected environmental quality.The result showed that the scale of the economy growth had negative effect on the environmentalquality, and environmental quality could be improved by improving the technology fund,expanding the foreign trade scale, raising the percentage of industrial wastewater, and raisinggreen coverage.Finally, the paper put forward the feasible environmental policy based on the conclusions ofempirical analysis.