The majority of industrial companies involved in a government energy-saving campaign have achieved their targets, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said.

Of the 953 companies that pledged to reduce energy use, 879, or 92.2 percent, fulfilled their goals, saving 38.2 million tons of standard coal last year, the NDRC said.

It said 391 companies, or 41 percent of participants, had gone further and saved more energy than targeted.

About 73 percent of the campaign participants invested 50 billion yuan to upgrade facilities to help achieve conservation goals.

They invested in more than 8,000 projects to make their operations energy efficient, including boiler retrofits and waste heat utilization facilities.

The 74 companies that failed to meet targets will be given one month to remedy the situation, the NDRC said.

Those businesses are ineligible for preferential policies and their new project or industrial land use applications will not be granted this year, it said.

The conservation campaign was launched in 2006 by the NDRC, covering nine high energy-consuming industries – steel, coal, electricity, non-ferrous metals, petroleum and petrochemicals, construction materials, textiles, chemicals and papermaking.

Manufacturing and construction accounts for 70 percent of the country's total energy use. The participants used 670 million tons of standard coal last year, or 33 percent of the total energy used in China.

China has vowed to cut its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent by 2010. It also said it will cut pollutant emissions by 10 percent during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10).

But the energy-saving story is still "grim", Xie Zhenhua, vice-minister of the NDRC, said previously.

In 2006, China cut energy use by 1.23 percent, but its target was 4 percent. It was closer to the target last year, but still short by 0.34 of a percentage point.

In 2007, China consumed 1.16 tons of coal equivalent when it produced 10,000 yuan of GDP, a 3.66 percent year-on-year decrease.

Provincial and regional government officials' performance reviews are now linked to energy saving and environment protection.

(China Daily September 5, 2008)