Wen wants his country’s development to happen “in a safe and clean manner”. In particular, the prime minister has targeted six industrial areas that are growing very rapidly: energy, steel, petroleum refining, chemicals and metals. He noted that together these six industrial sectors consume 70% of all industrial energy capacity and noting that their activities have on average grown by 6.6% in the first three months of the year when compared to the same period in 2006.
Wen has assure that the most polluting sectors shall see restrictions imposed on the use of territory for their factories, limiting access to markets, as well as face taxes on exports and regulations to protect the environment.
The final target is to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20% as well as cutting 10% of emissions within the next three years. However, by current standards, Beijing’s plan is very ambitious considering that last year energy consumption dropped by 1.23%. [AB]
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On press Ladysilvia
