China to Cap Non-renewable Energy Consumption

China will strictly control the consumption of non-renewable energy in the next five years by setting mandatory ceilings for local governments, a senior energy official said Sunday.

Jiang Bing, director of the development and planning department of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said at a forum that the central government has set separate ceilings for energy consumption at local levels for the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

But to encourage renewable energy use and energy utilization, the consumption of hydropower, wind power, solar power and energy from comprehensive utilization will be deducted when measuring local energy consumption, Jiang said.

China plans to set up a complete evaluation and coordination mechanism for local energy consumption in the five-year period, so as to better evaluate the performance of local officials and making decisions on new energy projects, he said.

China aims to cap its total energy consumption at four billion tons of coal equivalent by 2015, an annual increase of 4.24 percent in the five years, said Zhang Guobao, former head of the country's National Energy Administration, earlier this year.