The European Commission will help China's construction sector to
meet national energy-saving targets, a senior EU official said.
The EU wants to share energy conservation knowledge to help
China to tackle its environmental challenge, Heiz Zourek, director
general for enterprise and industry of the European Commission,
said in Beijing recently.
The nation's construction sector is developing at a remarkable
pace, with 2 billion sq m of new buildings each year.
But only half the new buildings meet national energy-saving
standards, the Ministry of Construction found, during recent
nationwide inspections.
That could pose a threat to the nation's green targets - a 20
percent cut in energy use per unit of GDP from 2006 to 2010, plus a
10 percent reduction in major pollution emissions. The construction
sector is expected to contribute 30 percent of the total energy
savings.
"We are setting energy-saving standards for the construction
sector," said Huang Wei, vice-minister of the construction
ministry. "The EU has rich experience in making minimum performance
requirements for buildings. We hope that China and the EU can
enhance cooperation in the construction sector, including energy
efficiency, quality in construction design and quality of
construction products."
Zourek said the European Commission has held dialogues with
China in other areas, but this would be the first cooperation in
the construction sector.
"So in the first step we are not aiming to set up common
development standards for buildings, it is more about having
constant information and exchange.
"I will suggest setting up a working group, to have continuous
exchanges of views, to bring together that knowledge and, down the
track, EU companies can start cooperating with China on
construction sites," Zourek said.
(China Daily February 2, 2008)
