China is committed to reducing oil use in the coming years by avoiding wasteful consumption and developing renewable energy as alternatives, according to a message from higher-ranking government officials.

Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said Tuesday that optimizing the energy structure will be put high on the government agenda in the next few years. By 2020, renewable energy is expected to account for 15 percent of national consumption, up from the current seven percent.

Zhang Guobao, vice-minister of the influential State Development and Reform Commission told Xinhua that China will spare no efforts to prevent the oil proportion in the national energy consumption from going up.

Statistics show that China relies on vast reserves of cheap coal to generate 67.7 percent of its energy. Oil accounts for 22.7 percent in national consumption while gas accounts for 2.6 percent.

In 2004, China imported 120 million tons of crude oil, equivalent to 40 percent of its oil use. This year's crude oil imports are expected to reach 130 million tons.

Zhou Dadi, a renowned expert with the energy research institute of NDRC, said wasteful oil use is a big factor contributing to increasing imports.

China still bans low-emission, economic cars on high-speed streets of 80-plus big cities and in some places, oil is used to generate electricity.

Gao Shixian, also at the NDRC energy research institute, said China must restrain the development of sectors with high oil consumption.

China passed a renewable energy law that will take effect in a week at the begining of next year, and set policies in favour of non-fossil energy such as water, wind and solar power.

As part of the efforts to reduce oil consumption, China last week issued a guiding catalogue for industrial sectors, encouraging the production of low-emission, economical cars and cars using new energy, like electricity and liquid petroleum gas.

Generators exploiting oil to produce electricity were listed as "eliminated" in the document.

Gao expected that by 2020, China will get around 20 percent of its energy from oil. The proportion for coal will be lowered to between 50 and 60 percent, as that of the renewables hit 15 percent.

Source: Xinhua