Government and Policy

Regulations issued for new energy projects

By Yang Yijun (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-22 09:55

SHANGHAI - China on Tuesday stepped up its efforts to boost energy conservation across the country, enforcing new rules that demand energy-saving assessments be carried out on new fixed-asset investment projects.

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All new investments must undergo independent assessments and government reviews to establish whether they actually save energy before approval can be granted by regulators, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, said on Tuesday in a statement posted on its website.

"It is important and urgent for us to curb the excessive consumption of energy and to increase the efficiency of its use," the statement said.

According to the new regulations, independent institutions will carry out the assessments, while government departments take charge of their review.

Any fixed-asset investment project that fails to meet the energy-saving requirements will be rejected, according to the regulations, which take effect on Nov 1.

Projects that pass their assessment and review will be subjected to strict supervision of their actual energy use.

According to the regulations, if projects exceed an annually energy consumption equivalent to 3,000 tons of coal, managers must submit a detailed report to government regulators.

Managers of projects with the equivalent annual energy consumption of 1,000-3,000 tons of coal have to submit a brief report, while those who oversee projects that consume the equivalence of 1,000 tons of coal only have to fill out government energy-saving registration forms.

Prior to the regulations, there were no compulsory restrictions on the country's new fixed-asset investment projects.

Li Zuojun, deputy director of the Resources and Environmental Policy Research Institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council, said the rules are of great significance to industrialization and urbanization in China.

"Our country's industrialization and urbanization are mainly achieved through fixed-asset investments, which consume a lot of energy," Li said.

"The new rules will help the government keep energy consumption from increasing too rapidly and promote a reasonable use of resources."

China plans to cut its per unit gross domestic product (GDP) energy consumption by 20 percent at the end of 2010 from the 2005 level.

However, its energy consumption per unit GDP only dropped by 2.2 percent last year, failing to meet the annual target of 4 percent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

To achieve the target, a number of local governments have taken administrative measures like cutting off the industrial use of power.

"Such administrative measures may be replaced by an industry access system and an assessment of energy efficiency in the future. Projects that fail to pass the evaluation will not receive authorization," said Li Yangzhe, director of the National Energy Conservation Center of the NDRC.

"Some people may not understand why we need to adopt such limitations when China is not lacking energy, but we want to remind them that we should never use energy without restriction," he added.

Xinhua contributed to this story.