By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-06 17:13

To curb the preference of local governments for investments in resource-intensive industries, the law also allows the central government to determine preferential financing, taxation and industry policies to save energy.

In addition to energy saving, China's legislators are also prepared to review the circular economy law, which is expected to ensure cleaner and a zero-emission production process. But so far the legislative body has not yet given a timetable for when it will be voted.

Robert Lao, a world-renowned Chinese Canadian scientist said China had already been prepared to meet the challenges of changes to the production model.

"Up down from Chinese President Hu Jintao, the united mindset in China is that the country's economy should maintain sound and fast growth," said Lao, whose team from Canadian International Development Agency has helped China borrow ideas of cleaner production in the past decade.

All the legislative and administrative efforts have partly paid off.

China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product fell 1.23 percent year-on-year in 2006, the first annual decline since 2003, despite it still being below the government's target of 4 percent.

In the first nine months of this year, the index dropped 3 percent, compared to 2.78 percent in the first half. The achievement was called a "turning point" in environmental protection by central government officials.

During the nice months, there was a 1.81 percent fall in sulfur dioxide emissions, and a 0.28 percent fall in chemical oxygen demand, a key measure of water pollution.

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