The China Story: Thrust on energy efficiency as country advances

China, in some ways, had not officially put itself on the path of industrialization until early 1980s. And it's hardly surprising that China's total energy demand has been and will keep rising to meet the increasing demand stemming from modernization.

Energy efficiency has long been regarded as a way to reduce production costs as China moves forward to becoming a market economy despite the fact that before 2006, the notion was not as high on the government agenda as it is today.

Figures show that China's energy consumption density per unit of GDP has been falling. In 1980-90, the annual pace was 3.6 percent and that in 1991-2005, 3.1 percent.