In a report published on Thursday, the team - which includes two
former chief economists of the World Bank - also called on China
to cap total fossil fuel consumption and establish a detailed
"pathway" for reducing emissions.
The report and its recommendations have already been submitted
to the Chinese government. Co-author Nicholas Stern, chair of
Britain's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the
Environment, told reporters he hoped it would play a
constructive role in China's 2026-2030 "five-year plan".
The old development model drove rapid growth in China over the
last four decades, but is putting the world at "grave risk", the
report said.
China is aiming to bring emissions to a peak by 2030, though it
currently remains unclear at what level they will peak. Stern
said it needed to set a specific numerical target in order to
bring "clarity" to its decision-making.
The report also called on China to give greater prominence to
public transport and set a timetable for the elimination of
fossil-fuel vehicles. China should also promote low-carbon
agriculture, including plant-based meat and dairy, it said.
China began experimenting with "green GDP" in 2005 as concerns
mounted about the environmental damage done by rapid
industrialisation. A 2006 government report concluded that
environmental losses amounted to 3% of total GDP, but critics
believed the actual figure was much higher.
Though the green GDP project was cancelled in 2009, China
promised in 2013 to abandon a "growth at all costs" model and
said GDP would no longer be the sole criteria on which officials
would be assessed.
Some provinces have recently resumed efforts to create new
indicators reflecting the environmental costs of development,
with central China's Hubei using a pilot "gross ecosystem
product" that can be applied to individual districts, rivers or
development projects.
China is home to 16 of the 20 global regions most vulnerable to
climate change, data showed on Monday.
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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