China will curb development of projects that use large amounts of energy and have high carbon emissions, the country's state planner said on Tuesday.
Nine provinces and regions in China, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Jiangsu, increased their energy consumption on an annual basis in the first half of the year, spokeswoman Meng Wei from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said at a news conference.
"The national energy conservation situation is very severe," Meng said.
The NDRC has stopped reviewing proposals in those areas for new high energy-consuming projects that don't have the support of the national government for the rest of the year to try to meet annual targets, she said.
To meet China's climate commitment, the state planner also recently urged local governments to reduce more than 350 planned projects, and pledged to take down those that have failed to meet government requirements，Meng said.
While some regions approved high energy-consumption projects illegally, the NDRC noted there are other industries and companies that set overly ambitious goals, while some financial institutions had cut credit lines for coal power projects.
The state planner said it is working with relevant departments to formulate work plans and to ensure "no deviation" from central government policy.
China's Politburo said last month it would pursue its peak carbon plans in an "orderly" manner and correct any "campaign-style" carbon reduction efforts.
