China's Top-1000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises Program: Reducing Energy Consumption of the 1000 Largest Industrial Enterprises in China

Abstract

In 2005, the Chinese government announced an ambitious goal of reducing energy
consumption per unit of GDP by 20% between 2005 and 2010. One of the key initiatives
for realizing this goal is the Top-1000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises program. The
energy consumption of these 1000 enterprises accounted for 33% of national and 47% of
industrial energy usage in 2004. Under the Top-1000 program, 2010 energy consumption
targets were determined for each enterprise. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the
program design and initial results, given limited information and data, in order to
understand the possible implications of its success in terms of energy and carbon dioxide
emissions reductions and to recommend future program modifications based on
international experience with similar target-setting agreement programs. Even though the
Top-1000 Program was designed and implemented rapidly, it appears that – depending
upon the GDP growth rate -- it could contribute to somewhere between approximately
10% and 25% of the savings required to support China’s efforts to meet a 20% reduction
in energy use per unit of GDP by 2010.