China to curb energy consumption

China, the world's second-largest energy consumer, has launched an $80 million, 12-year initiative to tackle growing energy demand and severe energy shortage. The China End-Use Energy Efficiency Programme, created jointly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), will apply a voluntary, market-based approach focused on China's major energy end users-industry and buildings.

China is facing a serious challenge to improve energy efficiency as it aims to quadruple its economy by 2020 while just doubling energy consumption. Although the country has made improvements in the past two decades, China still lags behind many industrialized nations because of its heavy reliance on coal, insufficient energy supply, and low over-all efficiency.

"China's energy consumption per unit of output value in 2000 was 2.4 times more than that of the world average. And the level of end-use energy efficiency was 10 percent lower than that of industrialized countries," says Khalid Malik, a UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in China.

According to Jiang Weixing, vice chair of NDRC, the new program will cut carbon emissions by 12 million metric tons over the first three-year phase. "This will be achieved by reducing energy consumption by nearly 19 million [metric tons] of coal equivalent over this initial 3-year period," says Jiang. "At the end of the planned 12-year program, the cumulative carbon emission reduction will be about 76 million [metric tons]," he says.

The program is supported by the Global Environment Facility, which is contributing $17 million; the Chinese government, which is contributing $31 million; and the Chinese business sector, which has pledged $32 million.