China's National Development and Reform Commission has appointed
Xie Zhenhua, the former director of the State Environmental
Protection Administration, to become a deputy head of the
commission.
This is part of the government's drive to improve the country's
energy consumption efficiency.
The 57-year-old former environmental chief resigned in December,
2005 following a chemical spill that seriously polluted the
country's northeastern Songhua River. The NDRC is one of China's
most powerful agencies making economic decisions. Xie, who began
working for the NDRC at the end of 2006, is in charge of
environmental protection and energy saving. Ma Kai, minister of the
NDRC, says that China is facing severe problems relating to high
energy consumption and heavy environmental pollution.
China had planned to cut its per unit GDP energy consumption by
four percent in 2006. But officials failed to fulfill the target.
Figures show that the country's energy consumption per unit of GDP
rose by 0.8 percent, instead of a decrease in the first half of
2006.
The NDRC decided to make stronger efforts to achieve its goal to
reduce its energy consumption efficiency by 20 percent in the five
years up to 2010. And Xie's experience in the work of environmental
protection may help to yield results.
(CCTV January 12, 2007)