Save energy for better future

The goals of saving energy and reducing emission, set by the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), have been achieved by and large. But some of the methods used for reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent caused inconvenience to some people. For instance, some city governments in Shanxi, Hebei, Henan and Zhejiang provinces severed power supply and switched off the heating system late last year to meet their environmental targets.

Last week, Zhang Ping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, even apologized for the extreme measures that the local governments had taken, because the ultimate goal of saving energy is improvement of people's livelihood.

That makes striking a balance between environmental protection measures and people's livelihood a big challenge for China.