By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-24 07:34

Energy ceiling

In another development, latest research has shown that China's energy consumption is very likely to reach 3.1 billion tons of standard coal equivalent by 2010, 100 million tons more than the earlier ceiling.

And by 2020, when China is expected to realize its goal of becoming a well-off society, the country's energy consumption will reach 4.3 billion tons of standard coal equivalents.

Lu Zhongyuan, vice-president of the Development Research Centre of the State Council, described the numbers as "the most likely scenario" for China's energy consumption.

"Growing energy and resources demand has already become China's top challenge for further development," Lu said at the three-day China Development Forum, which ends today in Beijing.

The government has taken various measures in recent years, such as linking energy-saving performance to decide the career future of officials and the leaders of the State-owned enterprises, in order to curb the growth of energy consumption.

Last year, the country consumed 2.65 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, up 7.8 percent from the year before, even as consumption growth slowed 1.81 percent year-on-year.

The growth rate has largely slowed down compared with the double-digit pace in the earlier years.

State Councilor Ma Kai said earlier that China's economic development is too fast for the country to realize its targeted energy consumption ceiling of 3 billion tons of coal equivalent by 2010.

   1 2   

   1 2