China records biggest reduction in emissions

China reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 billion tons between 2006 and 2010, the biggest decrease of any country in the period, according to a new report.

The country's energy intensity, or energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product, dropped 19.1 percent last year from the level of 2005. It was equal to saving 630 million tons of standard coal, resulting in 1.5 billion fewer tons of greenhouse gas emissions, said the report on China's low-carbon development.

The report was published by the Institute of Global Low-carbon Economy, University of International Business and Economics, and the Social Sciences Academic Press.

Although China has become a major carbon emitter, it has realized the biggest carbon emissions reduction in the world, said a press release from the report's research team yesterday.

"The carbon emission reduction policy in China has been one of the strictest and most effectively implemented in the world," the release said.

Over the five years, the country sustained average annual economic growth of 11.2 percent with an annual energy consumption increase of 6.6 percent, the report said.

Efforts to shut down inefficient and highly polluting thermal power plants led to about 50 million tons of carbon emissions being cut, according to the report.

From 2007 to 2009, the country closed thermal power plants with a total capacity of 54 million kilowatts.

China also shut inefficient industrial projects like steel factories, cement plants and coal mines in the past five years, the report said.

It launched 10 major energy saving programs, including updating coal-fueled industrial boilers, improving the energy efficiency of the heating supply network, promoting green residential and office buildings and installing low-carbon public lighting systems.

The programs helped the country save the equivalent energy consumption of 240 million tons of standard coal, equal to a cut of about 550 million tons in carbon emissions, the report said.

Efforts to increase the use of alternative energies and forestation programs also contributed to carbon emissions control, it added.

Non-fossil energies accounted for 8.3 percent of the country's annual energy consumption in 2010, up from 7.5 percent in 2005.

Forest coverage in the country reached 20.36 percent in 2010, up from 18.2 percent in 2005.

In the next five years, the country has set a target to further reduce energy intensity by 16 percent and increase the ratio of non-fossil energies to 11.4 percent of annual energy consumption.

Also, it aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 17 percent from the level of 2010, which is the first time China included such a goal in its five-year economic and social development plan.

Xuan Xiaowei, a research fellow from the Development Research Center of the State Council and one of the report's authors, admitted the country faces great challenges in fulfilling these goals.

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