China is planning both incentives and harsher penalties to push companies and local governments to meet energy saving goals that Beijing fears may not be achieved amid strong economic growth, state media said on Sunday.
The revised regulations would strengthen enforcement and supervision, and include both incentives for saving energy and punitive measures against waste, said the state news agency Xinhua, which interviewed an unnamed National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) official.
The Financial and Economic Committee of the National People's Congress, or legislature, and the NDRC, the country's top economic planning body, are joining forces on the regulatory changes, which are expected later this year, the agency said.
However, no details of any planned changes were revealed. Beijing wants to reduce the energy usage of its booming economy by 4 percent this year and 20 percent by 2010, aiming to reduce a growing reliance on imported oil and the environmental impact of dirty-burning coal.
But with gross domestic product (GDP) rising 10.9 percent in the first half of the year, pushing up energy usage by 0.8 percent for each unit of GDP, the prospects of reaching efficiency goals are dwindling.
China's problems extend beyond low industrial standards to wider issues including an ageing, creaking electricity grid and poorly constructed housing that loses excessive amounts of heat in winter or requires extra cooling in summer. China's energy use for each dollar of GDP generated is 3.4 times the world average, according to Xinhua.
The government has already targeted energy-intensive industries such as steel, power generation, petrochemicals and construction and also encouraged small-scale domestic savings such as turning up the temperature in air-conditioned buildings and installing solar water heaters.
Beijing has said it will use energy efficiency as a criteria to judge officials seeking promotion, demand formal signed conservation pledges from major firms and provincial leaders, and recently signalled a renewed push toward a long-touted fuel tax.
Officials have talked about a fuel tax for years, but with drivers already grumbling about an increase of 15 percent in state-set prices since the start of 2006, officials have shied away from implementing the unpopular idea.
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