Assessment of building energy-saving policies and programs in China during the 11th Five-Year Plan

China’s 11th Five-Year Plan (FYP) sets an ambitious target to reduce the energy intensity per unit of gross domestic product by 20% from 2005 to 2010 (NDRC 2006). In the building sector, the primary energy-saving target allocated during the 11 FYP period is 100 Mtce. Savings are expected to be achieved through the strengthening of enforcement of building energy efficiency codes, existing building retrofits and heat supply system reform, followed by energy management of government office buildings and large-scale public buildings, adoption of renewable energy sources. To date, China has reported that it achieved the half of the 20% intensity reduction target by the end of 2008; however, little has been made clear on the status and the impact of the building programs. There has also been lack of description on methodology for calculating the savings and baseline definition, and no total savings that have been officially reported to date. This paper intends to provide both quantitative and qualitative assessment of the key policies and programs in building sector that China has instituted in its quest to fulfill the national goal. Overall, this paper concludes that the largest improvement for building energy efficiency were achieved in new buildings; the program to improve the energy management in government and large scale public buildings are in line with the target; however, the progress in the area of existing building retrofits, particularly heating supply system reform lags behind the stated goal by a large amount.