Campaign gets China to switch on to energy efficiency

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-02 22:07

The government wants to cut the energy intensity index (measured by energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP) by 20 percent from 2005 to 2010, or 4 percent a year, and pollutants discharges by 10 percent by 2010.

The government has allocated 41.8 billion yuan to the cause this year.

But, says Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), only a quarter of the goals were met in the past two years. To achieve the 2010 goals, the energy intensity index should be cut more than 5 percent on each of the next three years -- an arduous task.

In the second half, the government will continue the accountability system for energy conservation, step up efforts to phase out inefficient production, and push forward the major energy conservation and emissions reduction projects.

Last month, the NDRC revealed that seven of the China's 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions failed to meet annual energy conservation targets.

Xie said the leadership of the local governments would be called to account for their failures.

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