A project aiming to promote energy-efficient refrigerators in China has helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 11 million tons, according to the state environment watchdog.

The China Refrigerator Project, initiated by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in 1999, had greatly improved the energy-efficiency of refrigerators, said Li Xinmin, deputy director of the pollution control department under the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

The project had enabled the energy consumed to fall from 79.4 percent of the statutory maximum in 1999 to 56.6 percent last year, according to statistics from the China Household Electrical Appliances Association.

A common household refrigerator usually consumes about 1.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, but an energy-efficient appliance consumes at most 0.6 of a kilowatt-hour daily.

Due to the lower less consumption, each refrigerator is expected to discharge five tons less carbon dioxide over a lifetime of 10 years.

The statistics also showed that the production of energy efficient refrigerators soared from about one million in 1999 to 10.7 million in 2004, and to more than 14 million in the 12 months ending in June 2005.

Li Xinmin attributed the rapid spread of energy efficient refrigerators to the project's market promotion strategy, which helped manufacturers profits and enhanced awareness of the importance of environmental protection.

The project initially aimed to promote sales of 20 million energy efficient refrigerators in 10 years since it was launched and help cut carbon dioxide emissions by 100 million tons.

The GEF has donated US$9.6 million to the project and 16 manufacturers, producing more than 85 percent of China's total refrigerators, and 12 compressor companies have participated.

China has more than 130 million refrigerators, each consume about a half of the electricity used in an average household each day.

Zhang Xianfeng, an appliance expert, estimated the refrigerators produced in China in the next 15 years are expected to use 601 billion kilowatts-hour of power, emitting a high quantity of greenhouse gases.

If each refrigerator can save 20 percent of the electricity, the country could cut power consumption by nine billion kilowatt-hours, saving 10 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) in investment and preventing an accelerated deterioration of air quality, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2006)