Wiser investment urged in energy sector

BEIJING -- Investment in the Chinese energy sector should be cautious as the country's energy consumption growth is likely to slow down, a Chinese energy expert warned on Saturday.

Zhou Dadi, standing vice president of the China Energy Research Society, said it is unsustainable to boost the energy sector by expanding energy production capacity.

"Energy consumption growth will inevitably slow to a reasonable pace," said Zhou in a news briefing, at which the CERS annual China Energy Development Report was released.

Unadvisable expansion in the sector may lead to business risks, according to Zhou. He called on energy firms to coordinate more and put more focus on profitability of investment.

According to the CERS report, China's energy consumption needs to be streamlined, as 68.8 percent of the country's energy was provided through coal burning in 2011, up 0.8 percentage points year on year, while the average proportion worldwide is less than 30 percent.

High coal consumption dependence will also hamper China's green efforts for the 2011-2015 period, it points out.

The CERS called for an increase in supplies of cleaner energy including hydroelectricity, solar and wind power to replace fossil energy.

China plans to cut its energy use per unit of GDP by 16 percent by 2015 from the level in 2011. It also aims to lift non-fossil fuel energy usage to 11.4 percent of the country's total energy consumption from the current 8.6 percent.