The Premier said the country should lower energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 16 to 17 percent. The target is three to four percent lower from an earlier proposed five-year plan of cutting emissions by 20%. However the newly-proposed targets, along with the previous proposed emission target, are still subject for approval by the National People’s Congress which meets this week.
Experts have expressed their concern regarding the lowered targets, saying the lowered percentages might not be enough to guide the economic expansion of the local government.
A climate research team led by Yang Fuqiang in a study by the World Wildlife Fund recommended a 20 percent reduction in energy intensity – a percentage which they believe would steer the country to the right direction.
Mr. Fuqiang said that the 16 to 17 percent reduction target will not be enough to control the energy consumption of the local governments.
“Provinces always beat the economic growth target set by the central government, only a stricter energy intensity target would curb the irrational investment,” he added.
China used a total of 3.25 billion metric tons of standard coal last year, an increase of 5.9 percent from 2009’s 3.1 billion metric tons, records from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
The National Energy Administration in October 2010 proposed limiting China’s total energy consumption to 4.2 billion metric tons of standard coal by 2015. However, the actual figure of energy consumption may reach 5.1 billion metric tons of standard coal by 2015 if China continues to use coal at the rate it is doing now, a study released last Monday from the Chinese Academy of Engineering showed.
During the same month, the Communist Party of China Central Committee suggested that the country follow a five-year program of effectively controlling the country’s greenhouse gas, through cutting emissions by 20%.
Following the trend of the proposal of the Central Committee, Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission said that stricter measures to save energy and cut emissions would be included in the five-year plan.
In the long run, Mr. Xie said that in order to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 – a goal set by the Chinese in 2009 – China would have to reduce its energy consumption for industrial production to 85 million tons of coal.
