By Xuan Xiaowei, Department of Development Strategy and Regional Economy, DRC

Research Report, No.294, 2021 (Total 6359) 2021-10-11

Abstract: As one of the most important policies China has formulated for its carbon emission reduction implementation mechanism, the double-control of local aggregate amount and intensity of energy consumption (hereinafter referred to as the double-control) is also a major measure in promoting the peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality strategy. At present, impressive progress has been made in local energy consumption double-control drive, while there also remain some problems to be addressed. For instance, some local authorities excessively rely on some unconventional measures such as cutting or limiting production and even stopping production; the local policy mechanism centering on energy double consumption indexes with hierarchical management mode and evaluations at various levels is hard to fully mobilize the incentives of the enterprises and other social entities to get involved in the energy-saving work; the flexibility, stability and predictability of policies are yet to be enhanced. For the next step, the local authorities need to bring into full play the role of energy price and energy consumption standards; the laws and regulations and implementation mechanisms for the double-control efforts need to be fleshed out; the energy-saving awareness of all energy consumption entities needs to be improved; the environment to fully mobilize the energy-saving enthusiasm of all the entities needs to be fostered and refined; efforts are needed to ensure that the administrative resources are put in place for effectively unfolding the energy consumption double control and the administrative capabilities of relevant department personnel could be tangibly enforced.

Keywords: aggregate amount of energy consumption, energy consumption intensity, incentive mechanism