China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 55
Chapter 2: China’s Key Energy Targets, Policies, and Programs
Introduction
As a socialist market economy, China regularly establishes targets in its Five-Year Plans (FYPs)
and other forward-looking reports that include goals for all sorts of measurable outcomes
related to the country’s economy, development, population, energy, and environment among
others. Key among these are China’s energy targets, which define its goals for energy supply,
energy use, and energy conservation.
China’s first energy intensity reduction goal – to decrease energy use per unit of gross domestic
product (GDP) by 20% by 2010 over 2005 levels – was introduced during the 11th FYP period
(2006-2010). This was followed five years later by the introduction of the country’s first carbon
dioxide (CO2) emission intensity reduction goal to decrease CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by
17% by 2015 over 2010 levels – during the 12th FYP period (2011-2015) to complement the
energy intensity goal of 16%.
During China’s 13th FYP period (2016-2020), new energy intensity and CO2 emission intensity
reduction targets of 15% and 18%, respectively, were established for 2020 along with a goal of
having approximately 15% of total primary energy from non-fossil sources. During this period,
China’s leaders introduced the concept of “ecological civilization,” which includes six principles:
resource conservation, resource protection, innovation, green development, ecological quality
for the people, and active participation in international collaboration on climate change. China’s
ecological progress will be monitored via an environmental governance system ()
that is being created by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and the Ministry of Ecology and
Environment (MEE) to move beyond end-of-pipe control of emissions (MEE, 2017).
In 2018, President Xi Jinping specifically called for “cultivating and strengthening energy
conservation and environmental protection industries, cleaner production industries, and clean
energy industries, promoting comprehensive resource conservation and recycling, and realizing
the circulation of production systems and living systems.” He further advocated for “a simple
and modest, green and low-carbon lifestyle, against extravagance and waste and unreasonable
consumption” (China Government Website, 2018a).
Despite China’s many targets and other efforts, it is now the world’s largest emitter of energyrelated CO2, having surpassed the U.S. in 2006 (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment
Agency, 2007), and is the world’s largest primary energy consumer, having surpassed the U.S. in
2010 (Institute for Energy Research, 2010; U.S. EIA, 2015).
This Chapter describes and then evaluates the progress that China has made to date on key
national-level energy and energy-related goals and targets. This is then followed by descriptions
and progress-to-date of 42 energy-related policies and programs that have been established to
assist in the realization of China’s overall goals and targets.
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