The plan not only aimed to tighten the dual control of energy use, but also allow for more flexible target setting and better alignment with China's climate goals, such as creating incentives to encourage renewable energy development, and developing a market regime for trading energy use quotas among provinces. The dual control plan is also better suited to improve China's long-term energy efficiency rather than short-term goals that are more likely to shock the system, experts said. However, the timing of the curbs and their misinterpretation by the provinces underscore the need to better coordinate energy policies with market movements and deregulate coal and power prices to truly reflect increasing energy costs. NDRC's energy curbs were issued in anticipation of more severe fuel shortages and disruptions after the lessons of the previous winter, and to try and resolve the imbalance by clamping down on energy intensive demand while efforts to shore up supply continue. For instance, a unit of GDP growth 50 years ago would have needed much more energy consumption than today.Ĭhina's power sector had been facing a mix of surging coal prices, limited domestic coal stocks, industrial power demand rises after a post- COVID-19 economic recovery, and structural issues in the power grid and coal supply chain for months. It has declined over the decades as human energy use has improved due to better technologies. This followed an earlier dual control scorecard issued in August that named provinces that had exceeded policy targets.Įnergy intensity is the amount of energy consumed for each unit of GDP growth, and is a measure of the energy efficiency of an economy. 16 updated measures under its existing dual control policy that seeks to curb both energy consumption and energy intensity. The country's top economic planner National Development and Reform Commission announced Sept.
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