In a bid to strengthen China’s energy security, the central government announced plans on Tuesday to spend nearly $400 billion to cut China’s energy consumption by 300 million tonnes of standard coal before 2015, via projects aimed at energy conservation and pollution reduction . From Reuters:
A report from China’s State Council, or cabinet, said the investments will take China almost halfway to meeting its target to cut the energy intensity 16 percent below 2010 levels by 2015.
The government has earmarked $155 billion of the money for projects that shrink energy use, and while the plan did not detail which types of projects or sectors would benefit from the funds, a big share of the cash is expected to go to industry.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in February set an overall 21 percent energy intensity reduction target for industry from 2010 to 2015.
The State Council plan said steel producers must reduce their energy use per unit of production by a quarter over the five years, coal-fired power plants by 8 percent and cement manufacturers by 3 percent.
Last week, The China Daily reported that China’s had cut its energy usage by 2 percent last year.
