Full Text: Report on China's economic, social development plan(18)

6. We will work hard to advance energy conservation, emissions reduction and environmental protection, and accelerate the building of a resource-conserving and environmentally friendly society.

1) We will strictly implement the accountability system for meeting targets. We will quickly formulate and roll out a plan for keeping the total energy consumption within reasonable limits. We will carry out evaluations of provincial governments' work in meeting energy conservation and emissions reduction targets. We will push forward performance management concerning energy conservation and emissions reduction, and improve the evaluation mechanism and the reward and punishment system.

2) We will focus on key areas. We will implement the campaign to get 10,000 plus enterprises to save energy and lower carbon emissions, and carry out trials of an online system to monitor energy consumption among major energy consumers. We will promote energy efficiency labeling and certification of energy-efficient products. We will implement the green building agenda, expedite energy-saving renovation of existing buildings, and promote the development of new wall materials. We will do a good job in demonstrating and promoting new-energy vehicles. We will strongly support the development of public transportation, and provide incentives to scrap old motor vehicles. We will carry out the strictest possible system for managing water resources, and continue to intensively implement the campaign to get everyone to save energy and reduce emissions.

3) We will accelerate the development of key projects. We will intensify efforts to implement key projects for energy efficiency retrofitting, demonstration of industrializing energy-saving technologies, promoting energy-efficient products for the benefit of the people, energy performance contracting, and energy-saving capacity building. We will move ahead with the construction of urban facilities to treat sewage and garbage, and strengthen construction of desulphurization and denitrification facilities and oversight of their operations. In 2012, a total of 14.5 billion yuan of investment funds from the central government budget will be allocated for constructing facilities to treat urban sewage and garbage and building sewer lines; the percentages of urban sewage treated and urban household waste safely handled will reach 83% and 79%, respectively, up 0.4 percentage points and 1 percentage point.

4) We will energetically develop a circular economy. We will scale up the special fund for the development of a circular economy; accelerate the transformation of industrial parks to make their operations more circular; enhance the development of demonstration bases for recovering mineral resources from city waste; deepen the demonstration pilot projects of remanufacturing; promote the reuse of kitchen waste; and go ahead with the project to forge 100 demonstration bases and 100 key enterprises for comprehensive use of resources. We will work harder to demonstrate industrialization of clean production technologies and promote their application, and carry out projects to reduce production of major pollutants. We will push forward demonstration projects of seawater desalination. In 2012, water consumption per 10,000 yuan of value-added of industry will decrease 7.2% and the proportion of industrial solid waste that is comprehensively utilized will increase 1.02 percentage points.

5) We will strengthen policy guidance. We will intensify efforts to charge differential and punitive electricity rates, carry out trials to apply a premium rate to electricity generated by power plants having their flue gas denitrified, and appropriately raise fees on the discharge of nitrogen oxide and other pollutants. We will strictly implement the system for assessing and examining energy savings in fixed-asset investment projects; carry out trials for trading energy savings; vigorously support the development of non-fossil energy sources; and safely and effectively develop nuclear electric power.

6) We will strengthen ecological and environmental protection. We will vigorously press ahead with the prevention and control of heavy metal pollution, nonpoint source pollution in rural areas and water pollution in key watersheds, in particular major rivers and lakes, comprehensively utilize crop straw, and intensify efforts to clean up marine pollution. We will strengthen control of air pollution, and promote coordination between key areas in air pollution prevention and control efforts. We will continue to implement key ecological protection projects of consolidating the progress in returning cultivated land to forests, protecting virgin forests (the second phase), building forest shelterbelts, establishing a nature reserve to protect the sources of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers in Qinghai province, and developing ecological shields in Tibet. We will enhance ecological improvement in key areas, including the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, the sources of dust storms affecting Beijing and Tianjin, karst areas being becoming stony deserts, the Loess Plateau, southern areas prone to slope failures, and chernozem areas in Northeast China. We will continue to push ahead the project to comprehensively restore the ecosystem of the Shiyang River and the project to rationally utilize water resources and protect the ecosystem in Dunhuang. We will press ahead with the work of restoring natural grasslands from grazing lands. We will promote legislation on ecological compensation mechanisms and implement the demonstration pilot projects of ecological conservation. We will intensify efforts to prevent and control geological disasters during flood season and in key areas. In 2012, we will bring soil erosion on areas of 50,000 square kilometers under control, and expand forest area by at least six million hectares.

7) We will work diligently to respond to climate change. We will implement the work plan on controlling greenhouse gas emissions for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, push forward with pilot projects and experimental zones for low-carbon development, explore ways to establish a carbon emissions trading market, quickly set up a statistical accounting system for greenhouse gas emissions, and implement a low-carbon campaign involving the whole society. We will take an active part in international cooperation in tackling climate change. We will conscientiously prepare for attending the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.