Authorities have pledged to speed up construction of green buildings in response to the surge in building energy consumption that has resulted from the country's rapid urbanization.

Li Bingren, chief economist at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD), said at a press conference Monday that authorities had made numerous efforts to save energy and reduce emissions, yet energy use efficiency remains low.

He said authorities have taken a series of measures to tackle the problem, such as promoting the use of renewable energy and construction of green buildings.

Official data showed that the annual per capita consumption of energy has quadrupled from half a ton of coal in 1978 to two tons in 2007.

Growing energy consumption is being caused by rapid urbanization, an increase in the use of household electrical appliances, and rising demands in housing quality among both urban and rural residents, Li said.

"Government office buildings and large public buildings commonly have such problems as high energy consumption, low efficiency of energy use and improper management," Li said.

By the end of 2009, only 2,175 of China's 29,000 government buildings and large public buildings had undergone energy audits.

Li said the government has signed a memorandum of understanding on green buildings with a number of other countries, including the US, France, Germany and Singapore.

Several seminars concerning climate change and green buildings were held by the ministry, which allowed China to learn from the experience of foreign countries, Li added.

He said while the use of renewable energy will be promoted, improvements are also needed in manpower training, design and maintenance of facilities and production standards.

To meet the growing need for energy, the government also pledged to increase the use of natural gas, which currently accounts for just four percent of the country's energy use, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Wu Yin, deputy head of the National Energy Administration, said earlier this year that the 4 percent is low compared with the global average of 24.1 percent.

Wu added that authorities are set to enhance exploration efforts, build gas reserves and increase imports.

Natural gas is favored because it is cleaner burning than coal, which accounts for 70 percent of the country's energy supply, according to a Financial Times report.

By chinanews.com