Energy is an important industry that is closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood. The supply of electricity, gas, and heat is intimately connected to people's lives and production. It not only reflects the ability to ensure people's livelihood but also the level of the business environment, and is inseparable from economic and social development. The 14th Five-Year Plan period is a crucial and window period for China to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality, as well as a key period for energy transformation. The formulation of the Energy Law is a major achievement in the development of China's energy policy system during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. Among them, high-quality development and efficient utilization of energy are the core requirements proposed in the chapter on energy development and utilization.
In the past five years, China's primary energy production has grown at an average annual rate of about 5%. The increase in energy production has fully covered the increase in energy consumption, with the energy self-sufficiency rate consistently exceeding 80%, providing effective support for economic development. According to predictions by major energy research institutions in China, China's peak energy consumption will reach 6.6 billion tons of standard coal, indicating significant potential for demand growth, which poses high demands on energy development. From 2021 to 2023, China's carbon emissions grew at an average annual rate of 3.8%, higher than the average annual growth rate of 0.9% during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. To achieve the goal of reducing carbon intensity by 18% by 2025, an average annual reduction of 7% must be achieved in 2024 and 2025. From 2016 to 2023, global carbon emission intensity decreased by about 20%, with China achieving a significant reduction of 27.7%. However, compared to OECD countries, which have already reached peak carbon emissions and entered a stage of decoupling economic development from carbon emissions, China is still in the early stages of peak carbon emissions, and carbon emissions are still growing rapidly, which will increase the pressure on China during the "carbon neutrality" phase.
The Energy Law clearly stipulates that the development and utilization of energy should be predicated on the needs of the country's economic and social sustainable development. To achieve "sustainability", it is necessary to rely on China's energy resource endowments, guided by the energy development policy of "clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient", and to coordinate and balance the development goals of ensuring energy security, optimizing energy structure, promoting energy transformation, conserving energy, and protecting the ecology. The priority of development and utilization should be determined based on the goal of structural optimization, with the objectives of efficiency, intensiveness, and conservation to promote the improvement of energy application quality.
The issues of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality ultimately boil down to development issues. The norms set forth in China's Energy Law regarding energy production and application fully reflect the concept of prioritizing development. Specific normative measures aimed at optimizing the energy structure and promoting low-carbon development have made up for the deficiencies of China's long-term sector-specific governance of energy, which lacks comprehensive normative guidance at the legal level. The goal of high-quality development and high-level utilization of energy is clearly defined in concrete industrial development requirements. This can effectively help relevant entities in China's energy industry determine their development direction, clarify their development path, and lay a more solid institutional foundation for promoting the goal of clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient energy.
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