China will give top priority to energy statistics in the
economic census next year, a senior statistician said
yesterday.
"To help meet the country's target for energy efficiency and
emission reduction, the State Council will strengthen energy
statistics collection, which was weak before. The economic census
for next year will center on this segment, and the overall
situation of society's energy consumption will be fully
investigated," said Geng Qin, deputy director of department of
industry and transport statistics, National Bureau of
Statistics.
China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product
(GDP) last year dipped 1.33 percent, a little higher than the 1.23
percentage point previously thought, Geng said.
China plans to trim per-unit-GDP energy consumption by 20
percent by 2010. That means a 4 percent energy consumption drop per
year during the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).
Last year, the country's provinces and regions, except Beijing,
did not fulfill the goal of 4 percent energy reduction per GDP
unit, Geng said.
Wu Zhonghu, a key drafter of China's first Energy Law, told
China Daily yesterday the law would institute the importance
of collecting energy statistics.
He said that while the Law on Conserving Energy focuses on
consumption-oriented energy statistics, the Energy Law will address
the issue of energy statistics gathering from a broader
perspective, involving production, distribution and
consumption.
China's top legislature began deliberating a draft amendment to
the Law on Conserving Energy, which details measures to avoid
energy wastage, improve energy efficiency and cut emissions, the
Xinhua News Agency reported.
Xu Dingming, vice-chairman of Office of the National Energy
Leading Group, yesterday said the third working draft of the
proposed Energy Law has been completed and it will be subject to
review by regional authorities and major energy producers and
consumers across the country very soon.
Xu did not elaborate on the content of articles addressing
energy statistics collection in the proposed Energy Law.
The National Bureau of Statistics and BP launched China
Energy Statistical Yearbook 2006 and BP Statistical
Review of World Energy 2007 in
Beijing yesterday. This is the third consecutive year for BP and a
key Chinese government department to jointly launch an energy
statistics publication.
The China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2006 covers
domestic energy data, up to 2005-end, including energy
infrastructure development, energy production, national energy
balance sheet, energy consumption and regional energy balance
sheet.
Data from BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2007 show
2006 was another year of high, volatile energy prices. But despite
the high prices, world energy consumption growth remained above
average, continuing the trend of recent years.
(China Daily July 3, 2007)