China will definitely achieve its energy saving and emission reduction targets in the 2006 to 2010 period despite failing to meet last year's target, according to Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The annual target for 2007 was omitted from the government work report Premier Wen Jiabao delivered to this year's 12-day session of the National People's Congress, but China's resolution to meet its energy saving and emission reduction targets remained unchanged, said Xie.

It would take time for some measures, like economic restructuring, to take effect so it was difficult to set an annual target, said Xie.

The former director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, who resigned after accepting responsibility for the 2005 Songhua River pollution accident which disrupted water supplies to millions of people in northeast China, was appointed deputy director of the NDRC in January this year.

According to the government's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), energy consumption for every 10,000-yuan (US$1,298) of gross domestic product (GDP) should be reduced by 20 percent by the end of that period. Meanwhile, the discharge of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand (COD) should drop by 10 percent.

But energy consumption for every 10,000-yuan of GDP fell 1.23 percent in 2006, missing the annual goal of four percent, while oxygen chemical demand (OCD) rose 1.2 percent and sulfur dioxide emissions were up 1.8 percent.

The failure was mainly a result of slow progress in industrial restructuring and fast growth in sectors that consumed more energy and discharged more pollutants, said Xie.

Also to blame were insufficient investment in energy efficiency projects, weak supervision and law enforcement and a lack of tax and financial policies that support energy efficiency.

The NDRC would continue to tighten land and credit supply, raise the threshold for new industrial projects and eliminate outmoded production capacity in the power, steel and iron sectors, said Xie.

In 2007, the government plans to close small power generating units of 10 million kilowatts and eliminate outmoded production capacity of 30 million tons of iron and 35 million tons of steel.

The country would also map out specific policies to boost the development of the service sector, increase investment in waste disposal projects, strengthen the supervision of enterprises with high energy consumption and issue an energy saving law and a recycling law as early as possible, said Xie.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2007)