China Offers Subsidy to Energy-Saving Products Purchase
China's Finance Ministry will provide up to 14 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in subsidies to buyers who purchase energy-saving products, including computers and air-conditioners, said a report by Xinhua, in its latest effort to save energy and raise market share of energy-saving products to more than 40 percent.
"The move marks the government's effort to combine stabilizing economic growth and stoking domestic demand with promoting energy savings and emission reductions," told an official at the ministry to the Chinese news agency on Sunday, noting similar subsidy programs in the past, which have boosted sales of energy-efficient appliances by over 600 billion yuan and saved 28 billion kWh of electricity annually since 2009.
"The (new) subsidy program will help save 31.3 billion kWh of electricity every year and drive sales of the energy-saving products by 155.6 billion yuan ($24.6 billion)," he added.
Related: Green Tech Money Blooms in China
Related: Infographic: 8 Ways Why China is Beating the US in Green Technology
Related: Renewable Energy: Is Red China Going Green?
China's new subsidies, which are expected to last for a year, hopes to emulate the success of its predecessors from 2009 and June this year. In 2009, China began subsidizing energy-efficient light bulbs and automobiles; and beginning in June 2012, the country also provided subsidies for purchases of five types of energy-saving home appliances, including air conditioners, flat-panel televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and water heaters.
According to Xinhua, desktop computers and air-conditioners are some of the least energy-efficient products in the country.China has around 130 million desktop computers across the country, which consumes 31.2 billion kwh of electricity every year, while the annual power consumption of air-conditioners can reach up to 350 billion kwh.
Additionally though fans, pumps, compressors and transformers manage to account for 40 percent of total energy use in 2011, they were still only 80 percent as efficient as similar products in developed countries.
Xinhua also noted that the new subsidies could give a boost to the slowing economy, which grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, marking the slowest pace in three years.
Last month, the Chinese government also announced that they were setting aside up to 2.37 trillion yuan ($373 billion) for investment into energy conservation and anti-pollution projects over the next three-and-a-half years.
Related: China To Spend $372 Billion On Green Projects
Related: How China Can Address Its Economic Challenges By 2030: Justin Yifu Lin
Related: How China Can Rebalance Its Economy: Michael Pettis
Though they did not say when the latest subsidy program would start, the finance ministry said that the subsidies could lift consumer consumption and prevent economic growth from sagging further.