The national average income will also have a targeted rise of 7 percent annually during the same period, a boost from the 5 percent rate stipulated for the 2006-10 period.

The new "mechanism" consists of nine major aspects, according to Xu Xianping, vice minister of the NDRC at Sunday's conference, which include public education, employment service, social security, health, population planning, culture, infrastructure, housing and environmental protection.

In line with this shift, Premier Wen announced Saturday, in his annual government work report that containing volatile inflation is a priority for this year.

Shan Guangnai, a researcher with the Institute of Sociology at Chinese Academy of Social Science, told the Global Times that transform the economic growth mode and curbing growth speed is essential and urgent.

"Growth has been largely reliant on huge energy consumption and therefore caused environmental degradation," Shan said.

As resources dry up, this means of development will lose its effectiveness, Shan said.

China's GDP for 2009 accounted for 8 percent of the world's total, but the country also consumed 18 percent of the world's energy, 44 percent of its steel and 53 percent of its cement, according to NDRC data.

Yu Lingyun, an administrative law professor at Tsinghua University, struck a cautious note, telling the Global Times that "the realization of these targets depends on implementation by local governments."

Yu also added that governance transparency and information openness should be improved upon.

Shan said evaluations of officials' performances also needed to be adjusted, adding that the green economic achievements and income growth deserve larger consideration, instead of a simple focus on economic figures.