On August 13, Shanghai municipal government spokesman Chen Qiwei answered reporters’questions in a written form about the city’s newly-published implementation plan on the work to save energy consumption and reduce pollutant emission.

1. Q: Increased efforts to clamp down on high energy-consumption and heavy-pollution projects are needed to do a good job in energy saving and emission reduction. Does the city have any measures targeting the issue?

A: Shanghai will impose strict control on high energy-consumption and heavy-pollution projects from the source. The city will strictly control the investment projects in high energy-consumption and heavy-pollution industries, such iron and steel, electrolytic aluminum, copper smelting, ferroalloy, calcium carbide, coke and cement. The mechanism will be improved to assess and examine the energy-saving aspect in fixed-asset investment projects, and management rules on this issue will be drafted and implemented.

All new, re-construction and expansion projects will not pass an environmental assessment, if they have yet to provide a total amount of pollutant discharge. If a project discharges more pollutants than the required amount when it is completed, it will fail the environmental protection inspection. A stricter mechanism that one veto will be enough to reject a construction project while reviewing its environmental influence will be introduced. Those industrial zones which haven’t carried out an environmental influence assessment or have incomplete environmental protection facilities are not allowed to introduce new projects. Authorities are not allowed to handle procedures for any new, re-construction and expansion projects that fall short of the clean production requirement or whose energy consumption and pollutant discharge are higher than the national or local standards.

2. Q: What are the city’s goals while carrying out adjustments in energy structure?

A: The city will keep increasing the consumption proportion of natural gas and other clean energy in order to lower the percentage of coal in one-time energy consumption from 53 percent in 2005 to about 46 percent by 2010. We will roll out more encouraging policies to further speed up the development of wind power, solar power and other renewable energy. By 2010, wind power conversion facilities of 200,000 to 300,000 kilowatt capacity will be in place. By then, solar energy facilities equivalent to 2.5-million-square-meter area exposed to light will be completed, and photovoltaic capacity will reach 10 megawatts.

3. Q: How to strengthen the management of those high-energy-consumption enterprises in energy saving and emission reduction?

A: The city will categorize these enterprises into different levels and introduce different management policies to them according to their levels. The city will also draft and implement rules to strengthen the management of them. In addition to energy audit, we will also keep doing checks on the 11 enterprises on the nation’s 1,000-company list. We will introduce the energy audit this year to the more than 100 enterprises whose annual energy consumption is above 50,000 tons of standard coal. We will gradually establish a mechanism to require the more than 800 enterprises whose annual energy consumption is above 5,000 tons of standard coal to report their energy use on a monthly basis. As for the enterprises whose annual energy consumption is more than 2,000 tons of standard coal, the district/county governments will take charge of supervising them. These big energy consumers will also be required to set up a position to manage energy consumption.

4. Q: What measures will Shanghai take to improve the processing household garbage?

A: The city is stepping up the construction of a system to collect household garbage in categories. This is to establish and improve a network to reclaim those renewable resources in garbage, increasing the reuse of renewable resources. The city will build a base to process solid castoff and turn them into useful resources again. A number of plants to process household garbage will be built in the city’s suburban areas. By 2010, about 50 percent of household garbage will be recycled in the city, up from the 26 percent in 2005.

5. Q: What are the city’s goals and measures to save water consumption?

A: Shanghai will tighten the management of access to water. Before 2010, the city will install water meters at all that have access to tap water for measurement. The city will curb the development of those industries which are big water consumers. Thermal power generation, petroleum and petrochemistry and other major water-consuming industries will carry out technology improvement to cut water consumption. The city will also popularize the water-efficient technologies and appliances. Newly-built and decorated apartments will be required to use water-saving sanitary ware. The 600,000 old-style water tanks in the downtown area will be upgraded for water saving. The city will extend the use of water from rivers and rains in the sectors, including urban engineering, sanitation, horticulture and landscape building. A water-economical agriculture will also be developed. More demonstration to encourage water saving will be introduced to industrial zones, campuses, communities and enterprises. By 2010, the city’s water consumption per 10,000-yuan industrial added value is expected to drop 30 percent, compared with 2005.

6. Q: Is there any working plan to accelerate the development of Shanghai’s energy-saving technology service industry?

A: The city will speed up the spread of the contract energy management. Professional energy-saving technology service companies will be supported. They can provide integrated services, including design, fundraising and operation, of energy-saving upgrade for enterprise or government office buildings, public facilities and schools. We expect to see 120 such companies in the industry within this year and two to three bigger players which will be influential nationwide in two years. We will make every effort to create an environment conducive to the industry development, such as diversifying fundraising channels and establishing a professional market for the exchange of energy-saving technologies.

7. Q: How will the city’s governments at all levels and enterprises increase their investment in energy saving and emission reduction?

A: The municipal and district/county governments will set aside a certain amount of fund in their fiscal budget. They will support the key projects of energy saving and emission reduction, the popularization of energy-efficient products and mechanism and the building of management and supervision systems through subsidies, encouragement and other approaches. The government’s special funds appropriated for energy saving and emission reduction will be mainly spent in phasing out obsolete technologies, delving into energy saving ways in construction and traffic and developing renewable energies. The city will draft rules to manage the special funds. And the fiscal budget will give more supports to those energy-economical, environment-friendly and resource-efficient projects.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the city’s investment in environmental protection will account for three percent of the city’s gross domestic product then. The environment investment will be mainly spent on the major projects to reduce pollutant discharge and the amelioration of management and supervision in environmental protection. The city will improve policies governing water use and the protection of sensitive ecological areas. The city will also explore measures to help cut pollutant discharge, such as levies as compensation for environment. The government will attract and encourage enterprises and social organizations to increase their investment and efforts to save energy and reduce emission.

8. Q: What can the public contribute to energy saving and emission reduction?

A: Energy saving and emission reduction closely concerns every ordinary citizen. The city will mobilize citizens and social organizations to take an active part in the campaign. The city will organize them to compile consumption guidelines and resource-economical pact and will encourage them to buy and use green products, in order to lead them to reasonable consumption and reduce waste. Saving water, power and gas will be part of standards while selecting model units and model communities. The city will organize one million employees to hold an energy-saving competition. Making use of social organizations, industrial associations and civil organizations, the city will encourage them to carry out consultation, study, training, discussion and promotion activities on energy saving and emission reduction.