China to develop energy-saving buildings

BEIJING - A legislative report says China will speed up building renovations to make more structures energy-efficient.

The report on the implementation of the Energy Conservation Law was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, during its bi-monthly session that lasted from Wednesday to Friday.

The report proposes several measures to accelerate the development of energy-efficient buildings, including one measure that aims to have people pay for heating costs on a metered basis.

This would come as a radical change in China as people have only had to to pay for heating since 2004, and most heating charges in China are based on floor space, not energy consumption. Prior to 2004, the government totally subsidized heating costs and, in northern China, the government provides the heating supply to households during the winter.

The report also states that buildings with a total floor space of 400 million square meters or more should complete renovations of their heating facilities by 2015.

Furthermore, the effort to boost the number of energy-efficient buildings will also target government buildings and large public facilities, according to the report.

In rural areas, the focus is on updating stoves to ones that are wood- or coal-saving.

Also according to the report, several other measures have been proposed to conserve energy, including capping total energy consumption, upgrading technological components, and giving a boost to the service and other clean industries.