China is overtaking the United States as the world's largest source of greenhouse gases even though its economy is only one-sixth in size

Treasury's McCormick Says China's Growth Harming Environment

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China must do more to prevent its booming economy and rising energy consumption from further damaging the environment, the U.S. Treasury's top international official said.

"China's rapid economic growth has come at a terrible cost to its air, water and soil," David McCormick, Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, said in the text of a speech at a forum at the University of California, San Diego.

McCormick directed some of his criticism at China's Three Gorges Dam project on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, Asia's longest river. "The dam has created extensive environmental problems such as water pollution and landslides, and has come at a tremendous human cost, with the displacement and relocation of over 1 million people," he said.

McCormick's rebuke comes as China prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, in Beijing in August. He noted that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities are in China, and said 26 percent of the country's surface water is "totally unusable." The U.S. and other countries must help China find "sustainable solutions" to its problems, he added.

"China is overtaking the United States as the world's largest source of greenhouse gases even though its economy is only one-sixth in size," he said.

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