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Japan’s experience, pollution control in Korea has not produced satisfactory results.
3) China
In the 1960s, economic growth in China was fluctuating due to political disorder such as the
Strategy of the Great Leap Forward in 1958-1961 and the Great Cultural Revolution in 1966-
1976. In the Great Cultural Revolution era, energy intensity of GDP had extraordinarily
increased. In the early 1970s, the significant pollution such as water pollution in the Dalian Bay
and the Guanting Reservoir occurred, and the Chinese government became aware of
environmental issues.
Since 1977, annual rate of economic growth had been more than 8%. Moreover, production
in industrial sector exceeded that in agricultural sector in 1977. Since 1978, China has launched
the Policy of Reforming and Opening up to the Outside World, and public policies in all sorts of
fields have progressed. In the field of environmental policy as a part of these policy reform, the
Environmental Protection Law (in Trail Implementation) was enacted in 1979. While both GDP
per capita and energy consumption per capita had increased, energy intensity of GDP had
decreased due to such policy progresses.
In the 1980s, Chinese economy continued to rapid growth. Since 1986, the trend of energy
intensity of GDP has turned to increase, and the state of environment in China has become
serious due to economic growth and population increase. In response to this, environmental
policy in China has been consolidated through establishing the National Environmental
Protection Agency in 1988 and enacting the Environmental Protection Law of 1989. The current
trend of energy intensity of GDP, however, endorses that China’s environmental policy has
achieved few good results because of the scarcity of funds and technology for environmental
protection.
5-2 Comparative Analysis
The above national experiences illustrate the similar pattern of relationship between
environmental policy development and variation of key economic indicators in these three
countries. At initial stage, environmental policy in each country began just before the period of
rapid economic growth and industrialization. Subsequently, rapid economic growth began, and
production in industrial sector exceeded that in agricultural sector. During these periods,
environmental policy progressed in a sectoral manner. At the next stage, energy consumption
increased in parallel with economic growth, and energy efficiency became worse. In these
conditions, the government adopted a comprehensive approach to environmental policy, by
consolidating administrative powers and responsibilities and enacting basic law for
environmental policy. After that, energy efficiency gradually improved. Additionally, under the
conditions that economic growth and industrialization slowed down, public concern shifted to
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