China needs to strive harder to reach its goal of energy conservation set by the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010), said Li Pumin, spokesman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

According to the plan, China will cut its per unit GDP energy consumption by 20 percent (compared with the 2005 level) at the end of 2010.

However, the per unit GDP energy consumption fell only by 14.38 percent from 2006 to 2009, Li said Sunday in an interview with the official Chinese government website.

Data from the statistics bureau showed that the country's energy consumption per unit GDP only dropped by 2.2 percent last year, failing to meet the annual target of 4 percent.

Li attributed last year's under performance to the rapid growth of industries with high energy consumption and high emission as China's economy has witnessed a strong recovery since the third quarter of 2009.

This year, the government will step up efforts to achieve the goal by strictly controlling industries with high energy consumption and high emission and promoting energy-saving products, said the spokesman.

The country will also step up construction of urban sewage treatment projects this year, increasing the daily urban sewage treatment capacity by 15 million cubic meters and the daily garbage treatment capacity by 60,000 tonnes, pushing up the treatment rate of sewage and garbage by 2.7 percent and 2 percent, respectively, to 75 percent and 71 percent, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2010)