China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) dropped 1.23 percent year-on-year in 2006, the first annual decline since 2003, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.

The figure, however, fell short of the target.

The country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) on national economic and social development set a target of 20 percent energy consumption reduction per unit of GDP, equivalent to 4 percent each year.

According to the NBS, the country consumed 2.46 billion tons of coal equivalent in 2006, up 9.3 percent from a year earlier, while the economy grew 10.7 percent.

Energy consumption soared 15.3 percent in 2003 and 16.1 percent in 2004, both more than 5 percentage points higher than the GDP growth rates for those years.

Energy consumption growth dropped to 10.6 percent in 2005, still a little higher than the economic growth rate.

Zhou Dadi, with the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told Xinhua News Agency that the decline indicates that the government's efforts at cooling down the economy and reducing energy use have begun to take effect.

However, failure to meet the annual goal shows that the economy still relies too much on energy and resource consumption, Zhou said.

Total energy consumption in 2006 rose year-on-year.

The consumption included 2.37 billion tons of coal, up 9.6 percent; 320 million tons of crude oil, up 7.1 percent; 55.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas, up 19.9 percent; 416.7 billion kilowatt-hours of hydropower, up 5 percent; and 54.3 billion kilowatt-hours of nuclear power, up 2.4 percent.

The rise of coal consumption shows that China's economic growth still relies too much on coal, which is heavily polluting and inefficient, Zhou said.

The NDRC announced last month that China would shut down small coal-fired power units with total annual capacity of 50 million kilowatts over the next four years.

Xie Fuzhan, director of the NBS, predicted earlier this year that as fiscal, tax and price policies take effect and industrial restructuring speeds up, China would see greater reduction in energy consumption.

Xinhua contributed to the story

(China Daily March 1, 2007)