Over the last 30 years China has enjoyed economic growth averaging about 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) per year. But this economic growth has come at a high environmental cost. In China approximately 750,000 premature deaths a year are attributed to high levels of environmental pollution. With the recent 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) China's leadership announced the launching of a green revolution that would balance the need for robust economic growthwith concern for the environment and combating climate change. This paper utilizes a rent-seeking framework to explore some of the obstacles inhibiting more environmentally sustainable policies in China. We describe the situa-
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