Enigin Update - China Set to Miss Energy Saving Target
CHINA’S energy efficiency programme may have been set back several years according to a senior Chinese official, with this years reduction in energy intensity unlikely to be achieved.
China’s efforts to revive its economy on the back of the global slump is being blamed for the set back. The booming economy has made the goal of cutting its energy intensity by 20 per cent over the five-year period look very improbable, according to Vice Minister of Science and Technology Zhang Laiwu.
"We still have a lot of challenges to meet. We should not be too optimistic about that. Our task remains arduous," Zhang told a news conference.
The problems started when China looked to kick-start their stuttering economy with a stimulus focused heavily on upgrading infrastructure, stimulating a boom in construction, boosting demand for cement, steel and other energy-intensive products.
The country had reduced its energy intensity by 14.4 per cent in 2009, but this year the energy intensity rose by 0.09 per cent in during the first six months of this year, the first increase since 2006.
Zhang explained:
"We had a resource-intensive growth pattern with very low labour costs.
“The essential issue for us is whether or not we are able to move from low-end to high-end, and change from a resource-based economy to science and technology-based and knowledge-based economy," he concluded.
Enigin Distributors across Asia are helping businesses to remain energy efficient while maintaining or increasing production and services, through using Enigin PLC's real-time energy management system Eniscope and related hardware and software.
China’s increased energy use has also lead to them surpassing the U.S. as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases (ghg). These two countries account for around 40 per cent of the total global ghg emissions.
