BEIJING — China has seen notable achievements in developing a circular economy, with its key measurement index increasing to 137.6 between 2005 to 2013.

The National Bureau of Statics (NBS) announced on March 19 that it has set up a comprehensive evaluation index system to measure the development of China’s circular economy, and calculated an average rise of 4 points per year from 2005 to 2013.

The amount of resource consumption declined steadily, with four out of five indicators in 2013 registering obvious drop compared to 2005. Water consumption per unit of GDP fell by 26.4 percent, and the indexes for biological resources, energy and nonmetallic materials all decreased by varying degrees.

Considerable advancements are also achieved in reducing waste emissions and improving the ability of disposing pollutants.

Emission per unit of GDP for industrial Sulphur Dioxide (SO) dropped 62.8 percent in 2013 compared to 2005, and that for waste water fell by 38.5 percent.

A rather slower progress was seen in waste recycling, with the smallest rate rise in the four major sub-indexes.

China urged a comprehensive system to protect the environment, according to the communique issued after the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in Beijing 2013.