Environmental cost and pollution risk caused by the industrial transfer in Qinghai Province

Abstract

With the rising pressure due to energy consumption and costs of environmental protection and recovery, industrial transfer from the eastern to central and western areas has surged in China. However, extremely fragile ecological conditions and severe water shortage are significant hurdles for industry development in Western China. Whether the vulnerable environment can bear the pollution caused by the transferred industry from Eastern China becomes a significant issue. This study firstly estimates energy and environmental costs in different areas of China, and assesses the necessity to upgrade the industrial structure of Qinghai Province. Then the emissions of waste water, waste gas, and smoke caused by transferred industries are calculated by Input-Output Model. On the basis of the effect analysis of waste emission on environment, pollution risks of Qinghai province are assessed. The results illustrate that the costs of environmental protection and recovery in China have a gradient distribution, of which the energy efficiency is lower while environmental costs are higher in Western China. Industrial structure adjustment has different impacts on the pollution of different sectors. Although the development of machinery and equipment, hotels and catering services, and real estate, leasing, and business services has increased the emission of pollutants, it is offset by the decreasing emissions caused by other industries such as construction and metal products. Therefore, although economic development will increase environmental pollution, industrial adjustments can effectively decrease waste water and waste gas emissions to reduce the pollution risk. It should be noted that there are still tremendous challenges for industrial transfer in Qinghai Province to coordinate the environment and industry development.

Keywords

environmental cost / industrial transfer / energy / pollution risk / Qinghai

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the New Teachers’ Scientific Research Program funded by Beijing Forestry University (No. BLX2012044), and National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2012CB955700). Data supports from projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71225005 and 41301161) and the Exploratory Forefront Project for the Strategic Science Plan in IGSNRR, CAS are also appreciated.

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