Three new national measures adopted by the State Council have
elevated the country's energy conservation and emission reduction
efforts to a new level.
As part of a unified statistical, monitoring and evaluation
scheme, provincial officials and enterprise leaders face
career-risking outcomes if they fail to meet their "green" targets
under the new "strict accountability system".
The documents reiterate the country's will to cut energy
consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and reduce major
pollutant emissions by 10 percent. But unlike the 11th Five-Year
Plan (2006-10) that specified the aims as "major goals to be
strived for", the new measures mandate both as "important
compulsory indicators".
Each compulsory indicator "must be achieved by governments with
all effective means," the deputy director-general of National
Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) development planning
division, Xu Lin, said earlier. The NDRC posted the documents on
its website (www.ndrc.gov.cn) on Monday.
The documents say small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in
the coal and electricity sectors have to set up statistical
databases from next year. Also, the 1,000-odd big enterprises that
use more than 10,000 tons of standard coal a year have to undergo
thorough annual tests, along with all provincial-level
governments.
Provincial and enterprise leaders have been placed on an
evaluation sheet of 100 points. Provincial governments can earn 40
of those points by cutting the rate of energy consumption per
10,000 yuan ($1,354) of GDP. Enterprises can get the 40 points by
cutting their emission.
The officials and corporations have to submit annually their
energy efficiency targets following indicators outlined in the 11th
Five-Year Plan, the documents say. A joint assessment team of the
NDRC, the Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Personnel and a
number of other departments will evaluate their performances.
To pass the entire assessment, a province or enterprise has to
earn more than 20 points in this section, with the unsuccessful
ones getting a failing grade.
Moreover, "failed" provinces will have to halt their pending
high-consumption projects, streamline their actions, and their
governments will face investigation.
Officials and enterprises that lie or try to conceal facts can
face legal charges.
Despite significant progress, the energy conservation and
emission reduction situation is still "quite severe", NDRC deputy
chairman Xie Zhenhua said last week.
In the first three quarters of this year, China's energy
consumption per unit of GDP dropped 3 percent year-on-year. But the
figure last year was only 1.23 percent.
(China Daily December 6, 2007)
