China may hit energy use target for 1st time in 08

China could meet its own annual targets for energy efficiency for the first time this year, but will still have problems meeting its goals of reducing emissions, according to a state-backed think tank.

China in 2006 set a goal of cutting energy intensity, or the amount of energy needed to produce $1 in economic growth, by 20 percent by 2010. But after it failed to meet the annual target in 2006, the first year of the campaign, it has not published the annual goals for subsequent years
“It is predicted that the slowdown of energy consumption per unit of GDP in 2008 can hopefully reach the annual target of above 4.4 percent for the first time,” according to prepared remarks by Fan Jianping, director of the Economic Forecast Division of the State Information Center, for a speech on Tuesday.

“However, it will be hard to reach the standard for the slowdown in chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide discharges.”

Energy intensity fell by 3 percent in 2007, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission said in December, without specifying what the original target had been. Energy intensity fell by 1.33 percent in 2006, far short of Beijing’s goal of a 4 percent drop for that year.

Reuters