China develops circular economy progress index

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The National Bureau of Statistics in China has set up an index system to measure the development of its circular economy.

In order to better understand its development, it has worked backwards to 2005 and calculated that between this date and 2013, the index has grown by an average of 4 points per year to reach 137.6 after starting at 100.

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China’s amount of resource consumption has declined steadily over that period with four out of the five indicators in 2013 registering an obvious drop compared to 2005.

Water consumption fell by 26.4% over the period, while its indices on biological resources, energy and nonmettalic materials all decreased.

Emissions from waste fell as did the ability to dispose of pollutants.

But waste recycling saw the slowest progress of all the major sub-indices.

The index was developed following a commitment to a comprehensive system to protect the environment that was agreed at the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in 2013.