Over half of the buildings constructed in north China in 2009 were not equipped with heat-metering devices, resulting in their failing to meet China's energy-saving standards, an inspection report released on Monday.

Further, China's top legislature conducted the inspection that found over 2 billion square meters of space in old buildings in north China need to be renovated to save energy.

So far, only 5 percent of that space has been renovated.

"Concerning the implementation of the Law on Energy Conservation, there are still many problems which require attention," said Hua Jianmin, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), when briefing lawmakers on the report.

Inspectors consisting of NPC deputies toured eight provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities including Tianjin, Shanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, and Zhejiang to check the enforcement of the Energy Conservation Law.

The Energy Conservation Law took effect in April 2008.

According to the law, in Chinese cities with central heating systems, households should be charged for heat based upon the amount of heat consumed.

Among other measures, the law requires strict controls of indoor temperatures in public buildings.

"We found indoor temperatures in many public buildings are too low in summer and too high in winter. Some buildings had windows open while air conditioners were being run," Hua said.

The report proposed increasing funding to help buildings in north China achieve energy-saving standards.

It also called for innovation in China's energy-saving technologies and greater efforts to promote the use of solar energy, methane and other renewable energy resources.

Further, figures from the report show that high-energy-consumption industries accounted for some 80 percent of the country's total industrial energy consumption last year.

"The industrial development -- especially that of high-consumption heavy industry -- has been overly fast, which greatly boosted the country's energy consumption on the whole," Hua said, adding that a large amount of technology and equipment in this industry is outdated.

The report urged major efforts be made in structure adjustment in accordance with energy savings and emission reductions, while greatly developing high technology and service industries.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2010)