China's energy consumption growth slows in Q3

BEIJING - China recorded slower energy consumption growth in the third quarter amid efforts to build a clean and low-carbon energy consumption structure, the National Energy Administration said Monday.

The year-on-year growth of energy consumption in the third quarter dropped 14.3 percentage points from the first quarter and 4.7 percentage points from the second quarter, partly due to remarkable energy use drops in the energy-intensive industries.

Of the total, coal consumption growth in the third quarter shrank 13.1 percentage points from the first quarter and 2.8 percentage points from the second.

The clean energy sector has been expanding in the third quarter.

By the end of September, the installed capacity of hydropower, nuclear power, wind power and solar power totaled 1.01 billion kW, accounting for 44.1 percent of the total installed capacity, up 3 percentage points from the same period last year.

In view of the goals of peaking its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, China is speeding up the transformation to a clean and low-carbon energy consumption structure.