China is signing up for another push to improve the efficiency of its smokestack economy. The government has committed to reduce the country’s energy intensity – the energy consumed per unit of output – by 17.3 per cent as part of its next five-year plan. While cutting energy intensity has been criticised as a poor substitute for capping emissions, this is still a welcome ambition for the world’s largest energy consumer. Whether it will deliver is another matter.
China has been better at setting such targets than hitting them. Its last promise – delivered five years ago – to cut energy intensity by 20 per cent looks unlikely to be achieved. The target was admittedly derailed after China decided to prioritise growth over the environment in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In a frantic effort to catch up in recent months, Beijing has been directing thousands of enterprises to close obsolete factories.
Implementing the latest promise will not be easy. Party cadres in the regions tend to prioritise growth and employment – leaving the environment to look after itself. The electricity market is also an impediment to greater efficiency. Power in China is currently allocated according to archaic subsidies and political favour. It is hard even to measure what has been achieved, as Chinese data on energy use are not entirely trustworthy. At last year’s Copenhagen climate change talks, Beijing rejected international monitoring of its emissions.