China's energy use slows in 2014

Energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan (1,563 U.S. dollars) of China's GDP fell 4.8 percent year on year in 2014, the biggest in the past five years, data showed Thursday.

Shanghai Municipality and Hebei and Jilin provinces posted the greatest year on year decline, dropping energy use by 8.71 percent, 7.19 percent and 7.05 percent, respectively, according to the figures released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the National Energy Administration.

The government also evaluated energy use for every 10,000 yuan of industrial value-added output in 2014. Guizhou Province topped the list with a decline of 13.39 percent from the previous year. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region ranked last, with a 2.31-percent increase in power usage per 10,000 yuan of industrial value-added output.

China aims to cut energy use by 16 percent by the end of this year from the 2011 level, which was 0.793 tons of standard coal per 10,000 yuan of GDP. It also aims to bring the share of non-fossil energy to 15 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2030.

In the first half of 2015, China's power use rose only 1.3 percent, while economic growth held steady at 7 percent, the lowest quarterly growth rate since 2009.