Local growth targets to ruin energy-saving plans
12 March 2007
China is likely to miss its 2004-2020 energy-saving target because local governments have set higher energy consumption ceilings in a bid to boost growth, the South China Morning Post reported. The claim was made yesterday in the Development Report of China's Regional Economy, produced by local experts with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It said local governments have made it "impossible" to reach the National Development and Reform Commission's target of quadrupling 2000-level GDP by 2020 while using only twice as much energy. According to the sum of figures outlined in five-year plans issued by provinces and municipalities, national energy consumption will reach the equivalent of 2.98 billion metric tons of coal by 2010, more than twice the 1.3 billion metric tons for 2000. Meanwhile, the total of local projected GDP for 2010 is US$3.74 trillion, less than three times the 2000 figure.