Stick to energy goals

Premier Wen Jiabao's latest call urging governments at all levels to use an "iron hand" to shut inefficient enterprises is a last-ditch attempt to meet the country's energy saving pledge.

With less than eight months left, China's chance to cut energy intensity by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010 seems rather slim at best.

After a hard-won decline of 14.38 percent in energy consumption per unit of GDP between 2006-2009, China saw a 3.2 percent rebound in energy intensity in the first quarter of this year due to lax controls over energy-consuming and polluting sectors in the face of the debilitating global downturn.