Despite soaring demand, China will seek to level out and
steadily reduce its dependence and usage of coal and oil by 2010,
the country's top economic planner has revealed.
The change, announced in an NDRC report yesterday, was directed
by the impact of coal mining on both human and environmental
resources as well as rising oil prices.
The report sets 2010 target coal as making up 66.1 percent of
the national energy consumption, down from 69.1 in 2005 with oil
down to 20.5 percent, down from 21.
Reversely, natural gas will be more heavily relied upon, with
its share rising from 2.8 percent to 5.3. Nuclear and hydro power
will also be tapped, along with other forms of renewable energy to
hit 8.1 percent from the 2005 levels of 7.1 percent.
As China has become more reliant on coal in recent years, a
relaxation of safety controls and widespread illegal mining have
caused a slew of fatal accidents and led to the contamination of
water resources.
"Coal's dominant role in our energy consumption structure has
caused many environmental and social problems and has brought about
a grave challenge for sustained development," the plan said.
Simultaneously, the country has been buffeted by soaring
international oil prices.
Zhou Dadi, director of the NDRC's energy research institute,
warned that both coal and oil consumption should be curbed due to
global warming.
This latest objective tacks on to previously-announced plan,
which if met would see China reduce energy consumption by 20
percent per unit of GDP by 2010.
Energy prices will be altered and raised to encourage more
conservation, although policy-makers are wary of an inflation
backlash and of placing a too-important burden on lower-income
workers.
The latest plan announced an annual growth in energy production
of 3.5 percent during the 2006-10 period, which would see the total
energy output amount to 2.45 billion tons of coal
equivalent in 2010.
The plan will face difficulties in an expected annual 4 percent
consumption growth rate, amouting to 2.7 billion tons of coal
equivalent, dwarfing the effective output.
(China Daily April 11, 2007)