A renowned energy expert on Thursday urged the Chinese government to give top priority to energy conservation and adopt the concept of "scientific energy development."

Zhou Dadi, director general of the Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, told the 2005 China Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development convention, that energy resources have become the "hard constraint" for China's sustainable social and economic development, while a higher GDP growth rate, quick industrialization and urbanization, fast growing energy-intensive sectors, enormous infrastructure construction and a new style of consumption in urban and rural areas have increased the country's demand for energy and other resources.

Zhou, who has been engaged in research into the country's energy strategy development and policy for many years, said at the convention sponsored by China Daily that China should take a new approach to industrialization and abandon the old-fashioned concept that judges the performance of local leaders with the single criterion of GDP growth rate.

According to Zhou, energy consumption has been sharply rising in China in recent years, and China's GDP unit energy consumption is three to five times that of the world on average.

"Great potential remains to be tapped in the field of energy consumption," Zhou added.

An energetic effort must also be made to diversify energy supply resources and develop energy alternatives so as to ensure long-term energy security.

Representatives from 12 Asian News Network (ANN) newspapers and other overseas and Chinese news organizations were present at the workshop.

The Asia News Network (ANN), established in 1999, is a network of national daily newspapers published in Asian cities, organized to provide avenues for cooperation and to optimize coverage of major news events in the region.

Source: Xinhua