No TV. No internet. No air conditioning. Traffic lights off. Hospitals deprived of electricity.
The risks of delaying energy-saving measures have been all too apparent in a Chinese region where the authorities initiated draconian rationing to achieve the state’s efficiency targets.
Anping county, in Hebei province, cut electricity to homes, factories and public buildings for 22 hours every three days in a radical move that has highlighted both the serious lastminute effort that China is making to achieve environmental goals and the immense difficulty of shifting away from a dirty, wasteful model of economic growth.
There are less than four months left until the end of China’s current five-year plan, during which the economy is supposed to have become 20% more energy-efficient.
That target (which measures energy use relative to GDP growth) is crucial for a nation that wants to move up the economic value chain and prove that it is making a significant contribution in tackling greenhouse gas emissions.
Progress towards this goal was initially good, with a 14.4% gain in efficiency until last year.
But it was tilted off track in the first three months of 2010 by huge infrastructure spending — largely on energy-intensive steel and cement projects — aimed at warding off the worst eff ects of the global economic downturn.
This meant China’s economy surged forward at more than double- digit pace but was having to burn more coal for each yuan of productivity.
After this was revealed, the state council (China’s cabinet) ordered the provinces to step up their eff orts to reach the energy-efficiency target by the end of the year.
During the summer, Zhejiang and Jiangsu began intermittently cutting power supplies to factories. Similar measures have since been adopted in other regions.
Last month, Anping went further than anyone by introducing rolling 22-hour electricity cuts.
According to local media, at least two hospitals and traffic lights were affected. Residents were given advance notice to make preparations.
But after a media outcry and central government criticism of Anping’s “unscientific approach”, the local authorities rescinded the cuts .
Last month, the government ordered the closure of more than 2 000 highly polluting, unsafe or energy-inefficient plants.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said this week that such measures would continue regardless of the cost. In the past year, China has overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest consumer of energy.
It has also become the biggest car market and the main emitter of greenhouse gases. —