No time for celebration yet. More tough road ahead. From Xinhua via Beijing Review (chart: China’s energy efficiency investment declined as a proportion of total energy investment, via Lawrence Berkeley National Lab):
China saw its energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) value drop from the third quarter of 2006, the first fall in three years, said the central economic planning body.
“The government’s efforts to reduce energy consumption produced relatively good results, but they were still far from the original target,” said Han Yongwen, secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, during an online interview on Tuesday.
However, the energy consumption per unit of GDP rose 0.8 percent instead of declining in the first half of 2006, leaving the government an even more arduous task. [Full Text]