China's NPC vice-chairman condemns wasteful use of energy

Li Tieying, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, said Friday that China's energy situation is severe and current energy conservation work lags far behind China's energy conditions.

An energy shortage has become the biggest threat to the sustainable development of China's economy and society, and a threat to the economic security of the country, said Li.

Li made the remarks at the 23rd meeting of the 10th Standing Committee of the NPC.

In his report on the implementation of China's Energy Conservation Law, Li said with per capita recoverable petroleum reserves only 7.7 percent of the world average, and natural gas reserves only 7.1 percent, China faces severe energy shortages.

China may seem to have endless coal but in fact per capita reserves are only 58.6 percent of the world average, said Li.

China's recoverable reserves of coal can last for 80 years, petroleum, 15 years and natural gas, 30 years, while the world average is 230 years, 45 years and 61 years respectively, he said.

China's coal output last year reached 2.19 billion tons, double the 2000 volume but still not enough to meet national demand.

China's net oil imports increased from 76 million tons in 2000 to 143 million last year.

However, despite the inadequate energy supply, China is still using energy in non-efficient ways, said Li.

China's energy use efficiency ratio is 33 percent, 10 percentage points lower than the world average.

China accounted for 35 percent of world coal consumption in 2004 and 7.8 percent of world petroleum consumption, while producing only 4.4 percent of the world's gross domestic production.

China has seen a continuous rise in the energy needed to produce 10,000 yuan of GDP (1,250 U.S. dollars). In 2002, the figure was 1.30 tons of standard coal, in 2003 it climbed to 1.36 tons, and then to 1.43 tons in 2004.

In the first half of the year, the energy required to produce 10,000 yuan of GDP rose a further 0.8 percent, further worsening the country's energy supply situation.

The current energy consumption mode is unsustainable for China, said Li.

Li said that one of the major reasons leading to China's severe energy situation is the laggard concept of local officials, who has been taking local economic growth as a major standard measuring their achievements and scrapped energy conservation as nonsense.

Such concept must be changed and energy conservation should be taken as the core of local economic growth, said Li.

China has overemphasized energy exploitation and supply, ignoring energy saving and efficient use, said Li, adding that investment in efficient use of energy shrank nearly 80 percent from 1983 to 2003.

Li attributed oversupply and over-exploitation to lack of controls over high consumption and policies that favor energy saving.

The proportion of the secondary industry is too high in national economy, which mainly relies on unrenewable energies, including coal, petroleum and natural gas, with renewable energies far from being well developed.

Technical incompetence and weak enforcement of laws on energy conservation are also to blame for the waste of energy, said Li Tieying.

In 2004, China's roaring economy saw severe bottlenecks in the supply of petroleum, power, coal and transportation, forcing the Chinese government to pay more attention to reducing China's energy consumption.

Since then a series of measures have been taken. After issuing the special plan for middle and long-term energy conservation in 2004, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) launched ten major energy-conservation projects last year, including the development of petroleum alternatives, conservation of energy in buildings and green lighting.

The State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued compulsory energy efficiency standards for industrial devices, home appliances and lighting equipment.

The Ministry of Construction set a goal of reducing energy consumption in newly constructed urban buildings by 50 percent by the year 2010.

China set the goal of reducing its energy consumption by 20 percent during the period from 2006 to 2010.

Li said to realize the goal, China must establish an energy-conservation oriented pricing and taxing policy system.

China should increase consumption taxes on unrenewable energy products such as coal and petroleum, levy taxes according to the reserve of resources and promote the issue of taxes on fuel oil as soon as possible, said Li.

Energy conservation should be taken as a standard for any products to enter the market and the energy conservation work should be taken as a major part in assessing achievements of local officials, said the vice chairman.

Li suggested that major energy use enterprises or institutions should inform their energy consumption conditions annually and related departments should publicize energy-conservation institutions or products as well as those judged as inefficient use.

Energy use of governmental institutions and buildings is one of the largest potential field for China to reduce its energy use.

Li suggested that a quota should be put on the energy consumption of governmental institutions and major public buildings.

According to Li, the Energy Conservation Law, enacted eight years ago, is to be amended to keep up with the new situation.

The amendment has been put on the agenda of the NPC Standing Committee.

The amended law, covering a wider range of industries, will be strictly enforced and expected to tighten controls over energy consumption and give an impetus to economic restructuring.

Source: Xinhua