by Guest Blogger
13. June 2011
This week's post was written by guest blogger Fu Lu, Senior Environmental Regulatory Specialist with ESD China Limited, an associate of Inogen Environmental Alliance.
Released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on September 17, 2010, and effective November 1, the Interim Measures on the Assessment and Review of Energy-Saving of Fixed Asset Investment Projects (the Measures) are designed to curb excessive increases in energy consumption and raise energy use efficiency across China.
According to the Measures, all new investment projects (including new construction, renovation and expansion projects) must undergo independent assessments and government reviews on whether they are energy-saving or not before being approved by regulators. Independent institutions will carry out the energy-saving assessments while government departments will take charge of the review work. Any fixed asset investment project that fails to meet the energy-saving requirements will be vetoed. Those projects that pass the energy-saving assessments and reviews will be subjected to strict supervision of their actual energy consumption.
According to the Measures, projects with an annual energy consumption of over 3,000 tons of coal equivalent must submit an energy-saving assessment report to government regulators. Projects with an annual energy consumption between 1,000 tons and 3,000 tons of coal equivalent will have to submit an energy-saving assessment form. Projects that consume less than 1,000 tons of coal equivalent annually will only have to submit a government energy-saving registration form. Both the assessment report and assessment form must be completed by independent institutions and reviewed by government regulators, while the registration form can be filled out by the project owner and does not need to go through a government regulator’s review.
Before the Measures took effect, there were no such compulsory restrictions on the country's new fixed asset investment projects. The implementation of the new Measures will ensure only projects that pass the energy-saving assessment and review can be approved for construction. This will restrain excessive increases in energy consumption for all new investment projects and thus help China achieve the new target of 16% reduction of per unit GDP energy consumption during 2011 - 2015.
