So says the Vice-Minister of Construction, Qiu Baoxing.

There are plans for an energy-saving campaign amidst the background of a worsening energy and resources shortage in the country.

It is hoped that such a campaign will mean ordinary people will understand more about where energy comes from and how it can stretch further.

Most people are not aware that the production of solid clay bricks, a widely-used building material but one that is not prone to being energy-saving in buildings, destroys 8,000 hectares of arable land every year in China.

Nor do they know that the average energy consumption in a residential home in Beijing is three times that of a home in the north of Germany, although the two places have a similar climate.

Most of the buildings in China, be they houses or offices, use more resources than their counterparts in developed countries.

More electricity, heat and water are used in the buildings than are used in similar buildings in developed countries.

As Qiu said at a press conference on Wednesday, about 95 per cent of the existing buildings in China are "high energy-consuming" buildings.

To make things worse, more than 80 per cent of new buildings are also "high energy-consuming," despite the Ministry of Construction issuing standards for energy-efficient buildings in 1986 and updating them three times after that.

Although the authorities have been promoting the idea of energy efficiency for two decades, remarkable changes have not been seen.

Many attribute this to a lack of awareness among local officials, businesses and residents.

Although saving energy has multiple benefits for society in economic and financial terms, its final goal is to save resources to sustain current development for the interests of society and future generations.

Therefore, it is actually serving the public interest, which means the government is the agent responsible to promote it.

The Chinese Government seems to have realized this responsibility quite early on.

However, it is impossible for the government to finish this task alone, especially when the country is striding towards a market economy.

More efforts are needed to promote saving energy. Every member of society is responsible for the project.

An effective way would be to offer economic incentives, establish legal overseeing and begin deregulation instantly in this field.

Unfortunately, these points were rarely stressed by the authorities when they preached time and time again for the public to save energy and resources.

It is clear that saving energy in buildings is of the utmost importance and standards for energy-efficient buildings should be implemented.

But if the forthcoming campaign to promote energy-saving buildings does not involve market-orientated means, it may not be as good an idea as it sounds.