Energy efficiency in China: Accomplishments and challenges

In 1980, the Chinese government made a series of policy decisions to stimulate energy efficiency in a major effort to partially decouple energy and economic growth, These and subsequent policy decisions, combined with a variety of implementation measures, have been exceptionally successful, China is one of the few countries at a relatively early stage of industrialization in which energy demand has consistently - and over many years - grown significantly less rapidly than gross domestic product (GDP). China's primary energy consumption in 1995 was 1250 million metric tons of standard coal equivalent (Mtce). If energy intensity has remained at the 1977 level, China would have consumed 2700 Mtce in 1996, 2.2 times the actual level. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the policy measures and implementation approaches that China used to achieve these results. We describe the programs that channeled investment into energy efficiency projects, management systems that encouraged factories to reduce energy demand, research and development programs that produced and applied technology to the problem of energy saving, the creation and widespread use of energy conservation service centers throughout China, and other policies. We also describe the present transition to a system that is much more market oriented, and identify some major challenges that need to be dealt with to, maintain the extraordinary efforts in China to reduce energy intensity. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.