China's State Council recently issued a new policy that will set up an examining system for provincial governments and 1,000 key energy-consuming enterprises. The system will assess whether they have reached the energy-saving tasks set by the government, and whether their pollution reduction methods are workable and being carried out, according to a press conference on energy conservation held on November 28.

"Failure or success in achieving environmental targets have become an important assessment of local government performance and the evaluation system would be implemented throughout the country," said Zhang Lijun, Vice Director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Xie Zhenhua, Deputy Chief of the National Development and Reform Commission, told the press conference that the concerned officials would receive a fail on their evaluation sheets if emission reduction targets were not met or effective measures were not taken in time.

According to the nation's 11th five-year plan (2006-2010), China will reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 4 percent per year, reaching 20 percent by 2010. Moreover, the new policy states that reaching the above-mentioned objective set by the authorities accounts for 40 percent of the test scores, and the remaining 60 percent is based around the other measures taken to save energy and reduce pollutants.

The examination is divided into four grades: more than complete (above 95 (percent score), complete (between 80-94 percent), basically complete (60-80 percent) and incomplete (below 60).

Officials failing in their energy conservation efforts risk a "one ballot veto" from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and will be asked to offer a public explanation, according to Xie. In addition, these officials will not allowed to participate in the year-end awards rating. What's more, the sanctions for energy-consumption projects in these related provinces will be suspended, and no preferential policies offered to them.

On the other hand, officials and business heads completing the tasks will be praised, rewarded, and enjoy preferential loans and tax policies to support their future development

Zhang said that while the pollution situation was still quite severe, the energy conservation and emission reduction work was going smoothly this year. Party committees and governments at all levels have strengthened efforts in this regard.

Statistics during the first three quarters of the year revealed that sulfur dioxide emissions in China fell 1.81 percent, and chemical oxygen demand, a measure of water pollution, dropped 0.28 percent. Xie said China's energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped three percent year-on-year in the first three quarters.

Many businesses have taken various measures to reduce emissions. Take the Elion Resources Group in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, for example. At the recycling base of the Group, several large production items link with each other, forming an industrial chain: a power plant "eats" coal gangue, a kind of waste produced during coal mining production; a cement plant swallows the power plant's coal ash and other industrial waste residue; and water is recycled after being treated. In this way, all the wastes became resources, and they produce zero pollutants. The Group saves funds, lowers production costs, and enjoys preferential tax payment.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the government will invest 234 million yuan ($31 million) in the program of energy conservation and emission reduction this year.

"To truly implement the program, the ministry will outline a rating system to allocate more funds to those who vigorously try to reduce pollution and save energy," said Wang Baoan, head of the Economic Construction Department of the ministry.

(Souce: Xinhua, People's Daily and the Ministry of Finance)