China is encouraging officials to spare some of their attention,
usually focused on GDP growth, for energy conservation.
Zhejiang, an economically booming province in the country's
east, has decided to add energy efficiency to the evaluation system
on local officials' performance.
Eleven mayors and 58 county heads in the province have recently
been appointed as top officials in charge of local energy-saving
work.
The new indicator is intended to encourage officials to score
more by lowering enterprises' costs, promoting technological
innovation and adjusting industrial structures for energy and
ecological security, according to Lu Zushan, the province's
governor.
The coastal province, like most developed areas in the country,
is suffering from a sharp conflict between energy shortage and
galloping economy.
The average per capita GDP in Zhejiang exceeded US$3,400 in
2005, while 95 percent of its resources relied on imports or
transfer from other places in China.
The province has set a goal which requires the energy
consumption per unit of GDP in 2010 decline by 15 percent from
2005, Lu said.
Some government officials used to be indifferent to energy
conservation, as exemplified by their ignorance of energy wasting
in government buildings they worked every day.
A survey showed that the daily per capita electricity
consumption by the provincial administration center building in
2004 was nine times that by residential buildings.
The building was later driven to upgrade its energy-saving
measures, including raising the temperatures of air-conditions,
using central heating system and power-saving lights.
In addition to Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Gansu
provinces and Shanghai have also decided to evaluate officials'
performance on energy conservation.
Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan called earlier this month for
the establishment of a new evaluation system that relates
energy-efficiency to the appraisal of local officials.
Zeng admitted that the current situation of energy-saving in
China is worrying.
Governmental statistics show that from 2001 to 2005, the average
growth rate of China's energy consumption was six percentage points
higher than the country's economic growth rate.
Energy consumption per US$10,000 of economic output in China is
3.4 times of the world's average.
In March this year, Premier Wen Jiabao announced at the annual
session of the National People's Congress that China will strive to
cut its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 4 percent in
2006.
It was the first time that China has linked energy-efficiency
with the economic growth index.
According to the 11th five-year development plan (2006-2010),
China is determined to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by
20 percent in the coming five years, and change the country into a
resources-saving and environment-friendly society.
China must reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by an
annual rate of at least 4.4 percent in a bid to fulfill the
five-year target, experts said.
It is a good change for the country to encourage officials to
take into consideration energy consumption while seeking economic
growth, said Michael Enright, a professor with the Sun Hung Kai
Business School of Hong Kong University.
"China can realize sustainable growth if it shifts to balance
economic and social development," the professor said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2006)