China's Energy Conditions and Policies

II. Strategy and Goals of Energy Development

China's energy development emphasizes thrift, cleanness and safety. Believing that development is the only way for its survival, China solves problems emerging in the process of advance through development and reform. To this end, it is applying the Scientific Outlook on Development, persevering in putting people first, changing its concept of development, making innovations in the mode of development, and improving the quality of development. It strives for high scientific and technological content, low resource consumption, minimum of environmental pollution, good economic returns, and guaranteed safety in energy development, so as to realize the coordinated and sustained development of all energy resources to the fullest possible extent.

China's energy development is based on the principle of relying on domestic resources and the basic state policy of opening to the outside world. The country is striving to ensure a stable supply of energy with a steady increase in domestic energy production and promote the common development of energy around the world. China's energy development will bring more opportunities for other countries and expand the global market, and make positive contributions to the world's energy security and stability.

The basic themes of China's energy strategy are giving priority to thrift, relying on domestic resources, encouraging diverse patterns of development, relying on science and technology, protecting the environment, and increasing international cooperation for mutual benefit. It strives to build a stable, economical, clean and safe energy supply system, so as to support the sustained economic and social development with sustained energy development.

-- Giving priority to thrift. China has made resource-conservation a basic state policy, and stresses both developing and saving, with priority given to saving. For this, it is actively changing the pattern of economic growth, adjusting the industrial structure, encouraging research and development of energy-saving technologies, popularizing energy-saving products, improving energy management expertise, improving energy-saving legislation and standards, and enhancing energy efficiency.

-- Relying on domestic resources. China mainly relies on itself to increase the supply of energy, and tries to satisfy the rising market demand by way of steadily expanding the domestic supply of reliable energy resources.

-- Encouraging diverse patterns of development. China will continue to develop its coal resources in an orderly way, spur the power industry, speed up oil and natural gas exploration, encourage coal bed gas tapping, boost hydroelectric power and other renewable energy resources, actively promote nuclear power development, develop substitute energy resources in a scientific way, optimize its energy structure, realize supplementation between multiple energy resources, and guarantee a steady supply of energy.

-- Relying on science and technology. China fully relies on science and technology to enhance its ability for independent innovation and its ability to digest and improve imported technologies, tackle technological bottlenecks in energy development, improve key technologies and the manufacturing level of key equipment, seek new ways for energy development and utilization, and redouble the strength for further development.

-- Protecting the environment. China has set the goal of building a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society, and is endeavoring to coordinate energy development with environmental protection. It endeavors to make the two promote each other for sustainable development.

-- Cooperation for mutual benefit. China works sincerely and pragmatically with international energy organizations and other countries on the principle of equality, mutual benefit and win-win to improve the mechanism, expand the fields of cooperation and safeguard international energy security and stability.

The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in October 2007, set the goals of quickening the transformation of the development pattern and quadrupling the per-capita GDP of the year 2000 by 2020 through optimizing the economic structure and improving economic returns while reducing the consumption of energy resources and protecting the environment. The Outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China projects that the per-unit GDP energy consumption by 2010 will have decreased by 20 percent compared to 2005, and the total amount of major pollutants discharged will have been reduced by 10 percent.

To realize the country's economic and social development goals, the energy industry has set the following targets in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010): By 2010 the energy supply will basically meet the demands of national economic and social development; and obvious progress will have been made in energy conservation; energy efficiency will have been noticeably enhanced and the energy structure optimized; technological progress, economic benefits and market competitiveness will have been greatly increased; and energy-related macro-control, market regulation, legislation and emergency pre-warning system and mechanism compatible with the socialist market economy will all have been improved. The result will be that the coordinated development will have been achieved between energy production, the economy, the society and the environment.