Additional north-south differences in China revealed by the Planetary Pressure-Adjusted Human Development Index

Abstract

The UN's Planetary Pressure-Adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI) incorporates environmental footprints into development indicators. If footprints are high, PHDI is reduced compared to HDI. Many nations have seen stagnating HDI and declining PHDI. When using PHDI, >50 countries drop below the very-high development category. China has seen unprecedented development but with large inequalities. We investigate PHDI across provinces and put this in global contexts. While there is a well-known east-west regional divide, we reveal an additional significant north-south divide by PHDI. Environmental inequalities across provinces are larger than development inequalities. China reflects global extremes where under-developed provinces can have continuingly declining PHDI due to extractive activities, similar to oil- or mining-focused nations. Innovation-oriented provinces, such as Guangdong, have high PHDIs similar to European nations. We explore metric choice issues for PHDI and the need for approaches that incorporate the lag between capital stock accumulation and HDI – the stock-development problem.