اجرای سیاست های صرفه جویی انرژی در چین: چگونه دولت های محلی به شرکت های صنعتی در دستیابی به اهداف صرفه جویی در انرژی کمک کردند

Local governments have replaced the national ministries that are in charge of various industries to become the primary implementer of energy-saving policies in China since 2000. This paper employs a case study-based approach to demonstrate the significance of local governments’ policy measures in assisting industrial enterprises with energy-saving activities in China. Based on the longitudinal case of the Jasmine Thermal Electric Power Company, this paper hypothesizes that sub-national governments have played a major role in implementing energy-saving policies in China since the 11th Five-year-plan period. A wide range of provincial and municipal agencies collaborated in implementing five types of policy measures – informational policy, skill building, improved enforcement of central directives, price adjustment, and funding – that reduced barriers to energy saving and motivated active pursuit of energy-saving activities at industrial enterprises. The case study demonstrates how an enterprise and local governments work together to achieve the enterprise's energy-saving target. The authors will investigate the hypothesis of this paper in the context of multiple case studies that they plan to undertake in the future.

Energy-saving policy in China has significant global impact. Since 2000, China's energy consumption has more than doubled (World Bank, 2012). In 2010, China overtook the United States to become the world's largest energy consumer, accounting for 19% of global energy consumption (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2010). As China becomes more affluent and urban, its citizens will consume more energy (Qi et al., 2013). Recognizing the unsustainable pace of growth in energy demand and its consequences for the environment, security, and global climate change, China released the 11th National Economic and Social Development Five-Year Plan in 2006, which established a mandatory energy-saving target: a 20% decrease in national average energy intensity (i.e., energy consumption per unit of GDP) by 2010 (National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), 2006a and Energy Information Administration (EIA), 2008). By 2010, China reversed its rising energy trend from the 2000–2005 period and reduced energy intensity by 19.1%, slightly short of the 20% target (Qi et al., 2013; Andrews-Speed, 2009). In China, policy performance often depends on implementation. In the 1980s and 1990s, the implementation of energy-saving policy in China relied on numerous national ministries (Qi, 2013; Appendix A in supplementary material). With these ministries abolished by 2000 as the central government reorganized itself during its adaptation to a market economy, local governments1 assumed responsibility for implementing energy-saving policies under the so-called target responsibility system (TRS).2 Specifically, the 20% national average energy intensity reduction target was to be met using “responsibility contracts,” which assign energy-saving targets to lower levels of governments and key energy-consuming enterprises3 and hold government officials and enterprise leaders accountable for target performance through an evaluation system, linking the local implementation of central policies to financial bonuses and career advancement of local cadre (Lo and Wang, 2013, Zhao and Ortolano, 2010 and Zhou, 2010). In response to the barriers to industrial energy saving in China, including the relatively low priority of energy saving for enterprise managers (Chen and Porter, 2000 and Li et al., 2013), the lack of systematic knowledge about energy-saving opportunities (Fleiter et al., 2012 and Schleich, 2004), the insufficient energy management system (Chen and Porter, 2000 and Fang and Zeng, 2007), incentives to continue production at small low-efficiency facilities (Price et al., 2011), and difficulties raising funds for energy-saving projects (Wang et al., 2008 and Zhao and Ortolano, 2010), local governments in China instituted and implemented a series of policies and programs since the 11th Five Year Plan (FYP) period (Zhou et al., 2010 and Zhang et al., 2011). This paper investigates whether and to what extent local governments’ implementation of energy-saving policies have alleviated barriers and facilitated energy-saving activities at industrial enterprises in China as well as whether the same trends will apply during the 12th FYP period. Historically, gathering empirical evidence about energy policy implementation in China has been difficult due to limited access to data. This paper contributes to the existing literature by employing a case study-based approach to demonstrate the impact of sub-national governments’ implementation of energy-saving policies on energy-saving activities at industrial enterprises. Based on a longitudinal case study of the Jasmine Thermal Electric Power Company (JTEPC), the authors hypothesize that sub-national governments have played a major role in implementing energy-saving policies in China. A wide range of provincial and municipal agencies collaborated in implementing five types of policy measures – informational policy, skill building, improved enforcement of central directives, price adjustment, and funding – that reduced the barriers to energy saving and motivated the active pursuit of energy-saving activities at industrial enterprises. The authors will investigate the hypothesis in the context of multiple case studies that they plan to undertake in the future.

Based on the longitudinal single case of Jasmine Thermal Electric Power Company, the authors have generated the following hypothesis: sub-national governments have played a major role in implementing energy-saving policies in China since the 11th FYP period. A wide range of provincial and municipal agencies collaborated in implementing five types of policy measures – informational policy, skill building, improved enforcement of central directives, price adjustment and funding – that alleviated the barriers to energy saving and motivated the active pursuit of energy-saving activities at industrial enterprises. The case study demonstrates that Jasmine and local governments work closely together to achieve the energy-saving target of the enterprise. We believe that this case study serves as a good starting point for understanding the relationship between local governments’ policy implementation and enterprise-level energy-saving activities. As suggested in the methodology section, the authors will investigate this study's hypothesis in the context of a large set of future case studies. Despite the success of local governments’ and the studied power plant's collaborative energy-saving efforts during the 11th FYP period, the constantly evolving challenges or barriers that industrial enterprises face in pursuit of higher energy efficiency should be addressed by government policies at both the national and sub-national levels. If policy measures do not accommodate the changes in the barriers faced by enterprises, then the policy portfolio is unlikely to have the same positive impact on industrial energy efficiency during the 12th FYP period as it did in the 11th FYP period.