Following China's failure to achieve its annual energy
consumption control goals, the country's lawmakers are urging the
government to set up a new ministry to ensure the efficient and
sustainable use of energy resources.
"China's energy supervision department is seriously
understaffed. Without a professional and strong administrative
team, laws and regulations cannot be well implemented," said Wang
Weicheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's
top legislature, which will kick off its annual full session on
Monday.
China abolished the Ministry of Energy in 1993. Currently,
energy control falls in the power of the National Development and
Reform Commission.
"Many countries, including the United States and Russia, have
ministerial level departments on energy resources. The US
Department of Energy even has more than 10,000 staff members," said
Wang, a heat energy engineering professor with Qinghua
University.
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The professor said his suggestion has won support from more than 20
deputies this year. "We hope that the government would further
control energy consumption and improve environmental assessment of
large projects," he said.
Wang said his previous suggestions have received "positive"
feedback from relevant government departments and he hopes the
suggestion will really make a difference this year.
The Chinese government set an annual goal of reducing energy
consumption per unit GDP by 4 percent in 2006. But official
statistics showed that the country's energy consumption per 10,000
yuan (US$1,292) of GDP fell 1.23 percent to 1.21 tons of coal
equivalent in 2006, failing to meet the projected target.
(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2007)