China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 74
technologies, green manufacturing, and high-end manufacturing innovation (State Council,
2015a).
Made in China 2025 has both energy intensity and CO2 emissions intensity reduction goals,
aligned with the goals established by the State Council (see Table 2-7 above). Energy
consumption per unit of industrial value-added will be reduced by 18% and 34% by 2020 and
2025, respectively, compared to the 2015 level (State Council, 2015a). By the end of 2018,
energy consumption per unit of industrial value-added had decreased 13.6%. In order to
achieve the 2020 target, China’s industrial energy intensity needs to continue decrease another
4.4%, which was the average rate of reduction between 2016 and 2018 (China Environment
News, 2017; Ji, 2018; and Yicai, 2018a). The Made in China 2025 goals for CO2 emissions per
unit of industrial value-added are to reduce emissions by 22% and 40% by 2020 and 2025,
respectively, compared to 2015 (State Council, 2015a).
The focus areas and industries that are targeted in Made in China 2025, such as electric cars,
other new energy vehicles, and semiconductors are being significantly supported by the
Chinese government, without specifically citing the Made in China 2025 initiative (MOF, 2019a).
There is reporting that China may replace the plan with a new strategy (Wei and Davis, 2018).
Energy Efficiency Top-Runner Program for High Energy-Consuming Industries
Best performing enterprises in a number of industries have been identified by government
officials as Top Runners and progress has been made in reducing the specific energy
consumption of these enterprises even though the program has a number of design and
implementation weaknesses.
In 2015, the Chinese government launched the voluntary Energy Efficiency Top-Runner
Program for High Energy-Consuming Industries such as iron and steel, ethylene, ammonia, and
cement (MIIT, 2015a). Every year from 2016 to 2019, the program selected and publicly
announced the Top Runners for these industries. The Top Runners are selected based on their
specific energy consumption, i.e., energy use per unit of product. Table 2-9 provides the specific
energy consumption value of selected Top Runner industries in 2017. Over the years, specific
energy consumption values of the Top-Runners have shown a downward trend, indicating
improvements in energy efficiency (CEC, 2018; CCIAC, 2019).
Program participants, however, have not received any substantial financial incentives, which
has affected the enthusiasm of the companies. In addition, most of the evaluations and
selections of Top Runners were done by local governments. The involvement of industrial
associations is not clear and seems to be limited. This program structure could compromise the
quality of the selection due to lack of familiarity and buy-in from industrial associations (Yu,
2019).
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