An international conference and expo on green buildings will be held on March 31 by the Ministry of Construction, when officials, experts and companies would assemble to discuss how to reduce energy consumed by buildings.

The fourth International Conference on Intelligent, Green and Energy-efficient Building & New Technologies and Products Expo will last three days, including a two-day conference and a three-day expo.

In the conference, design theory, technologies and materials of green and intelligent building would be the major topics. Also on the agenda are the past development, current engineering practices, operation and supervision of green building and residential real estate.

Having been held annually for three years, the conference will further promote energy efficiency and emission reduction in national real estate industry and architecture industry, a conference publication said.

In 2007, China saw a 3.27 percent year-on-year drop in energy consumption for each 10,000 yuan of GDP, Premier Wen Jiabao said in his government work report to the First Session of the 11th National People's Congress.

The country plans to spend nearly 200 billion dollars by 2020 to increase renewable energy use to 15 percent of total supply as well as reduce the energy that its buildings consume by 65 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2008)