Xi stresses efforts to revolutionise China’s energy sector

BEIJING - President Xi Jinping has called for more effort to revolutionise China’s energy production and consumption habits while presiding over a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs. Xi, head of the group, acknowledged that China faces challenges to cope with rising energy demand, supply restraints, huge environmental costs, and backwards technology.

To ensure national energy security, he said, the Government needs to take steps to rein in irrational energy use and control energy consumption by fully implementing energy-saving policies. Energy supply reform will take place to establish a diversified system that contains cleaner use of coal and non-coal fuels including oil, gas, nuclear power, and new energy.

Xi urged further efforts in energy technology innovation to forge the industry into a new powerhouse to fuel economic growth. With China’s energy consumption rising at an average rate of 2.5% per year and pollution rapidly worsening, Beijing has been pushing investment in alternative sources of energy as well as strengthening its ties with overseas energy partners in the Middle East and Africa in its quest for clean energy.