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China Aims to Achieve Two Goals at Once through Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction, Xinhua News Agency, Wu Zhi, 2007-12-11 China’s leaders have decided to prevent economic overheating as a top priority in macroeconomic regulation for 2008. At the same time, 2008 was regarded as a crucial year for achieving China’s energy conservation and emission reduction goals under the 11th Five-Year Plan. **Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, once said: “Adhering to and raising energy conservation and emission reduction standards should serve as the third lever in macroeconomic regulation, achieving two goals at once – curbing the economy’s trend from rapid growth to overheating and promoting the implementation of a scientific development approach.” ” The recently concluded Central Economic Work Conference stated that energy conservation and emission reduction will serve as key measures to promote scientific development. The basic requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development are comprehensiveness, coordination, and sustainability. At the meeting, Chinese policymakers continued to use the phrase of \"sound and rapid\" economic and social development, but at the same time emphasized giving priority to \"soundness\". “The core issue now is not speed, but rather issues such as the quality of growth and the mode of development. ”Cai Zhizhou, a researcher at the National Economic Accounting Research Center at Peking University, said. Excessive growth in energy-intensive industries Although consumption is playing an increasingly important role in driving economic growth, investment continued to grow at an excessive rate in the first three quarters of this year, accounting for 41.6% of economic growth. Fixed-asset investment increased by 27% year-on-year in the first 10 months, and driven by this, China’s economic growth rate for the whole of this year is expected to reach 11.5%. Due to strong domestic market demand, rising prices of energy and raw materials in the international market, as well as relatively low costs of factors such as land and labor, with resource and environmental costs not being fully reflected, there remains a strong intrinsic drive for high-energy-consuming industries to continue growing – which **increases the difficulty of achieving energy conservation and emission reduction goals**. In the first 10 months, a large amount of investment flowed into energy-intensive and polluting industries such as building materials, petrochemicals, chemicals, and non-ferrous metals. The investment growth rates for these four industries were 53.5%, 46.9%, 38.1%, and 33.4% respectively. **Zhang Yongjun, a senior economist at the Information Center, pointed out that high growth driven by high energy consumption and high pollution is difficult to sustain and runs counter to scientific development. Failing to shift the mode of economic development will inevitably hinder economic growth in the long run. Energy conservation and emission reduction are essential. China consumes its natural resources at a faster rate than its economy grows. Although in 2006 China accounted for around 5.5% of the world’s GDP, it consumed about 15% of the world’s energy, 30% of its steel, and 54% of its cement. As economic development has led to a growing demand for energy, China became a net oil importer in the 1990s; currently, its dependence on imported oil amounts to 47%. At present, China has the most polluted cities in the world, with major lakes such as Taihu Lake, Chaohu Lake, and Dianchi Lake being successively affected by blue-green algae. These lakes serve as a source of water for millions of people, and large-scale blue algae blooms can lead to deteriorated water quality; in severe cases, they deplete the oxygen in the water, causing fish to die and posing a toxicity risk to humans and animals. **The prime minister has stated that without changing the mode of economic growth, China’s natural resources and environment will not be able to support sustainable economic development. A turning point in energy conservation and emission reduction This year is a crucial one for the introduction of policies aimed at energy conservation and emission reduction; the central government has allocated 23.5 billion yuan to support these efforts, an amount unprecedented in scale. China incorporates the progress achieved in reducing energy consumption and emissions into the comprehensive evaluation systems for economic and social development in various regions, using these as important indicators for assessing **leadership cadres and corporate executives. A strict accountability system and a veto mechanism are implemented in this regard. In some provinces, if key counties, urban areas, and enterprises fail to meet their energy conservation and emission reduction targets within 3 years, the main responsible persons of those counties and urban areas will be ordered to resign; the legal representatives of state-owned enterprises will be removed from their positions on the spot, while private enterprises will be ordered to suspend operations for rectification in accordance with the law. **It is also required that central and **government departments take the lead in conserving electricity, water, and energy; indoor air conditioning temperatures in winter must not exceed 20 degrees Celsius, new energy-saving elevators should be used, and domestic cars with low displacement and manual transmission should be employed. To curb industries with high energy consumption and emissions, in the first half of this year, China abolished export tax rebates for 553 types of highly polluting, energy-intensive, and resource-intensive products, and reduced the export tax rebate rates for 2,268 other goods. Banks are required to strictly control credit allocation to these industries. The effects of these measures are beginning to show. In the first three quarters of this year, energy consumption per unit of GDP in China decreased by 3% on a year-on-year basis, and emissions of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand both saw a decline for the first time. Therefore, people are calling this year the \"turning point\" for energy conservation and emission reduction. Qi Jianguo, deputy director of the Institute of Quantitative Economics and Technical Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the task of macro-control will be substantial next year, **and a leading role must be played in terms of energy conservation and emission reduction. As the main actors in market operations, enterprises should assume social responsibilities and take the lead in efforts to save energy and reduce emissions. The general public should also raise their awareness of energy conservation and emission reduction, actively participate in these efforts, so that it truly becomes a \"nationwide initiative\".