ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN CHINA - ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CHALLENGES

In 1980, the Chinese government made a series of policy decisions to s timulate energy efficiency in a major effort to partially decouple ene rgy and economic growth, These and subsequent policy decisions, combin ed with a variety of implementation measures, have been exceptionally successful, China is one of the few countries at a relatively early st age of industrialization in which energy demand has consistently - and over many years - grown significantly less rapidly than gross domesti c product (GDP). China's primary energy consumption in 1995 was 1250 m illion metric tons of standard coal equivalent (Mtce). If energy inten sity has remained at the 1977 level, China would have consumed 2700 Mt ce in 1996, 2.2 times the actual level. This paper provides a comprehe nsive overview of the policy measures and implementation approaches th at China used to achieve these results. We describe the programs that channeled investment into energy efficiency projects, management syste ms that encouraged factories to reduce energy demand, research and dev elopment programs that produced and applied technology to the problem of energy saving, the creation and widespread use of energy conservati on service centers throughout China, and other policies. We also descr ibe the present transition to a system that is much more market orient ed, and identify some major challenges that need to be dealt with to, maintain the extraordinary efforts in China to reduce energy intensity . (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.