China in a Decade: Transformation drives energy saving, consumption reduction

IV. Energy efficiency has steadily improved

Since the 18th Party Congress, China has improved its energy-saving regulations, standards, policies and mechanisms, continuously phased out backward production capacity, and accelerated the upgrading of traditional industries. New momentums have emerged in energy saving and energy consumption reduction in industries, construction, and the transportation sector.

1. Significant reduction in energy consumption per unit of product

In 2021, among the 39 key energy-consuming industrial products surveyed, nearly 90% showed a reduction in energy consumption over 2012. Among them, the integrated energy consumption per ton of steel decreased by 9.8%, coal consumption of thermal power generation decreased by 5.8%, the energy consumption per unit of caustic soda, machine paper and cardboard, sheet glass, calcium carbide, and ammonia dropped by 17.2%, 16.8%, 13.8%, 13.3%, and 7.1%, respectively.

2. Overall efficiency improvement in energy processing and conversion

In 2021, industrial enterprises above designated size had an energy processing and conversion efficiency up 1.8 percentage points over 2012. Among them, thermal power generation increased by 2.3 percentage points, heat supply increased by 4.8 percentage points, raw coal washing increased by 3.2 percentage points, and coking increased by 1.5 percentage points.

3. Energy consumption per unit of GDP continues to drop

In 2021, China’s energy consumption per unit of GDP was 26.4% lower than in 2012, with an average annual decline of 3.3%, equivalent to saving about 1.40 billion tons of standard coal. Among them, the cumulative energy consumption per unit of added value in industries above designated size reduced by 36.2%, with an average annual decrease of 4.9%.