At a recent national working meeting of scitech construction, Qiu Baoxing, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Construction announced that the total area of construction sites in China had now reached 40 billion square meters, and 95 per cent of those were high energy consuming.

Qiu said the energy consumption in construction accounts for 27.5 per cent of the total social energy consumption; the energy consumption for heating per construction space is two to three times as much as that of developed countries in same climate zone.

By the year 2020, the housing construction area is estimated to increase by 30 billion square meters. Unless strict control measures are taken, every year construction will consume 1.2 trillion kilowatts hours of electricity and 410 million tons of standard coal, almost three times as much as the overall energy used nation-wide today.

Urbanization and urban development has already been listed as one of the 11 key targets on the National Mid and Long Term Scientific and Technological Development Plan Guideline.

By People's Daily Online