The government has earmarked 6 billion yuan (US$774 million) to
pay for energy conservation projects to be launched before the end
of this year, a senior official from the top economic planner said
yesterday.
"The special funds will support 10 major energy-saving projects,
such as reducing the use of petroleum and developing petroleum
substitutes and green lighting technology. It is hoped these
developments will help the country use less energy," Xie Zhenhua,
vice-minister of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC),
said at the China Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Forum
2007.
"Incentives have been devised to encourage enterprises to save
energy. Enterprises will receive financial aid according to the
energy they can save while reducing emissions."
Xie said the central government has also set aside an additional
2 billion yuan to compensate local governments and enterprises for
eliminating excess production capacity in the latter half of this
year.
The government has set a target of reducing energy consumption
per unit of GDP by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010, with annual
cuts of 4 percent. However, the decrease was only 1.33 percent last
year compared with 2005.
"If we cannot reverse this situation in a timely manner, it will
be difficult to meet this year's energy-saving target, which could
have an unfavorable effect on the energy-saving and
emissions-reduction targets in the 11th Five-Year Plan," Xie
said.
To prevent this from happening, the government will accelerate
the elimination of obsolete production capacity in 13 sectors.
He also said the NDRC and the State Environmental Protection
Administration will soon organize a conference on the recycling
economy in Chongqing.
The government will guide the price of power from small thermal
power plants, and raise excise taxes on resource-consuming products
such as refined oil, automobiles and solid wood floors.
(China Daily November 19, 2007)