China plans energy efficiency at big firms

China aims to cut large industrial enterprises' energy consumption per unit of added value by 13.5 percent from the 2020 level, according to a plan jointly released by six government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In China, an enterprise with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.99 million) is deemed relatively large.

The joint plan will also push forward the electrification and low-carbon shift of energy at the enduser level in the country's industrial sector.

It will further promote alternative technologies and equipment in key industries, including steel, petrochemicals, nonferrous metals and construction materials.

The larger goal is to further expand the proportion of electrification of terminal energy-using equipment and to lay a solid foundation for achieving carbon neutrality, it said.

Earlier data showed that the energy consumption per unit of added value of China's large industrial enterprises in 2021 dropped 5.6 percent from the previous year, after logging a 16-percent decline in the 2016-20 period.

The government will also step up renewable energy consumption to meet the demand for electricity from the newly added electrification projects, so as to ensure electric energy accounts for around 30 percent of industrial energy consumption by 2025.

Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute, said the industrial, construction and transport sectors have been major energy consumers and the country has been carrying out massive energy efficiency and conservation work related to these sectors.

The country has been upgrading equipment and facilities related to the industrial sector while stepping up the replacement of fossil fuels with green power in order to reduce energy consumption in these areas, Luo said.

With the country's industrial structure gradually improving and energy intensity decreasing, the new joint plan will further support the government's ambition to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, he said.

China has been optimizing its production structure in recent years to meet the country's growing demand for clean energy. For instance, the country's top oil behemoths have been laying out plans to increase the percentage of renewable energy in China's total energy output.

China National Offshore Oil Corp announced on Wednesday that the percentage of renewable energy in its total energy output would surpass that of oil and gas by 2050.

The company plans to invest 5 percent to 10 percent of its total expenditure in emerging industries, including new energy. The carbon emissions intensity will decrease between 10 percent and 18 percent during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), it said.

The government also plans to further promote the clean coal utilization to ensure a steady replacement of the traditional fossil fuel.

According to a five-year plan on energy conservation and emissions reduction released by the State Council, China's Cabinet, earlier this year, the country will appropriately control its total energy consumption and cut energy consumption per unit of GDP.

Total emissions of chemical oxygen and ammonia nitrogen will see an 8 percent drop by 2025 compared with the 2020 level, and that of oxynitride and volatile organic compounds will be reduced by more than 10 percent from the 2020 level, the plan stated.