Energy Consumption During 11th Five-Year Plan

China has been making unremitting efforts to do end of pipe air pollution control while developing its economy. However, in spite of such efforts, environmental pressures brought about by drastically increased energy consumption are still looming large. For example, during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China’s coal consumption increased by 44%, accounting for one quarter of the world’s total coal consumption in 2010 . Although desulfurization efforts in the power sector have allowed China to meet its

sulfur dioxide emission reduction targets, it still failed to implement de-nitrification plans, which resulted in a 20% increase of nitrogen oxide emission during the 11th Five-Year Plan. This means the only way China’s total nitrogen oxide emissions can return to its 2005 level by 2020 is if the country meets its 10% emission cut targets for both the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan periods. Which would mean the timeline to control NOx has been postponed by 15 years.