China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 66
governments optimize the industrial structure, giving them opportunities to use market tools to
allocate energy resources to enterprises more efficiently with better economic returns and
improve the quality of regional economic development.
In July 2016, NDRC selected four provinces - Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan, and Sichuan - as trading
pilots (NDRC, 2016b). The preliminary research and preparation work of the four pilots has
been completed and the provincial pilot implementation plans have been formulated (Tian,
2019). By the end of 2018, the energy consumption quota trading systems began operating in
Fujian and Zhejiang provinces (NDRC, 2018a).
100 Energy Efficiency Standards Promotion Project
To date, 96 energy efficiency standards have been established under China’s 100 Energy
Efficiency Standards Promotion Project covering many products and industries, but
implementation has been uneven and there is a lack of harmonization with international
standards.
Energy efficiency standards have played a key role in supporting China's energy conservation
and emission reduction work since 1988. In 2014, the National Standardization Commission and
NDRC jointly launched the “100 Energy Efficiency Standards Promotion Project” to address the
problem of narrow coverage of energy consumption limit standards and low stringency of
energy efficiency standards (NDRC and NSC, 2012; Xinhua Net, 2014). Since 2015, 96 energy
efficiency standards have been released (Table 2-5). These standards provide a scientific basis
for national and local governments to eliminate backward production capacity more
objectively, support the work in benchmarking and provide the basis for doing the energysaving responsibility evaluation, improve the energy efficiency level of specific sectors, equip
energy-saving monitoring and enforcement agencies with solid information when conducting
inspections, and support the establishment of an energy efficiency standardization system.
Table 2-5. 100 Energy Efficiency Standards Promotion Project
Standard Type
Mandatory energy consumption limit
Mandatory product energy efficiency standards for equipment performance
Voluntary standards on energy–savings measurement, energy management
systems, energy use monitoring, and economic operation
Number of Standards
34
19
43
Energy efficiency standardization involves a large number of government agencies, fields, and
industries but a strong mechanism for coordination and alignment is missing, particularly for
voluntary standards. An effective standardization coordination mechanism is therefore
important to address the lack of harmonization, including harmonizing its standards with
international standards. In addition, voluntary standards implementation is weak. There is no
systematic and persistent training, promotion, and supervision related to voluntary energy
efficiency standards. Many local government entities, quality inspection departments, and
corporate energy managers are not familiar with voluntary energy efficiency standards,
creating difficulties in implementation (Yu, 2019).
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