Written by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, from The Financial Times:
China and the US are two of the largest energy producers and consumers in the world, so it is highly significant that the fourth China-US Economic Dialogue, which will be held in the US this week, will promote long-term co-operation in energy, the environment and other related areas.
The Chinese government gives high priority to energy and resources conservation and the protection of the environment. It is committed to building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society. However, China is a big and populous developing country at a stage of accelerated industrialisation and urbanisation. This has led to heavy consumption of energy and resources and made the task of protecting the environment a daunting one. To meet the challenges brought about by the pressure of the growing demand, we endeavour to achieve the following goals:
Intensify energy and resource conservation. We are speeding up the demonstration and promotion of the industrialisation of energy-conserving and pollution-reducing technologies and adopting higher standards on energy conservation in major energy-intensive industries, such as iron and steel, nonferrous metals, coal, electric power, petrochemicals and building materials, as well as in the construction and transport sectors. We are vigorously developing the circular economy and working to reduce energy consumption per 10,000 renminbi of gross domestic product by 20 per cent by 2010 from the 2005 level.
