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Agency addresses energy concerns

By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-20 09:27

Huang Shengchu, president of the China Coal Information Institute, said in an earlier interview that the reserves "can satisfy our demand for at least 100 more years".

However, the rate of China's economic development suggests that the country will fail to realize its target energy consumption limit of 3 billion tons of coal equivalent by 2010.

The latest research from the State Council Development Research Center shows China's energy consumption is likely to reach 3.1 billion tons of standard coal equivalent by 2010, 100 million tons more than the earlier limit set.

By 2020, when China is expected to realize its goal of becoming a well-off society, the country's energy consumption will reach 4.3 billion tons of standard coal equivalent.

The government has taken various measures in recent years to curb the growth of energy consumption.

Last year, the country consumed 2.65 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, up 7.8 percent from the year before. The growth rate was 1.81 percentage points slower than in 2006.

Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that by 2050, China should become a global leader in energy efficiency while advocating clean energy development. To reduce the environmental impact and save resources, he said China should decrease the use of fossil fuels and accelerate the restructuring of its energy consumption mix during the rapid industrialization and urbanization.

In his own roadmap, Lu said nuclear energy may consist of 25 to 30 percent of China's total energy consumption by 2050, with renewable energy such as hydropower likely to account for 20 to 25 percent of China's energy consumption by that time.

The government has already started to make an energy policy shift. The most important development is to readjust its nuclear power targets and encourage alternative power exploration.

Meanwhile, the country has sped up its strategic oil reserve program since 2004. By 2010, the plan is to have 12 million tons of strategic oil reserves equivalent to 30 days of imported oil, the National Development and Reform Commission said earlier.

Oil price

On Monday, Zhang Guobao said Chinese domestic fuel prices will move in line with international markets, repeating an official line but stopping short of commenting on Beijing's next oil price move.

"China is in a transition from regulated pricing mechanism toward market pricing. Even after the June 19 price hike, our refined fuel prices are lagging behind global markets," Zhang said. "The overall trend for our energy price reform will be market oriented."

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