Implications of the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans for energy conservation and CO2 and air pollutants reduction: a case study from the city of Urumqi, China

The development of the economy, energy conservation and environmental protection should all have similar importance within China's Five-Year Plans, and be implemented in parallel and in interaction with each other. In practice however it is debatable whether they are implemented in a harmonious way. In this case study, which takes place in the city of Urumqi, we identify the elements within the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans pertaining to economic policy, energy policy and environmental policy, i.e. the 3E policies, and discuss their respective and collective impacts on energy conservation and CO2 and air pollutants reduction. A bottom-up simulation model is built based on the Long Range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP) to simulate the effects of these policies. It is shown that the excessive pursuit of economic growth during the 11th Five Year Plan led to mounting energy consumption and pollutant emissions, and environmental policy only had an obvious effect on the desulfurization of the power industry. On the other hand, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the structural adjustment promoted by the economic policy enhanced energy conservation and reduced emissions of pollutants. Energy policy played an important role in the reduction of air pollutants. Moreover environmental policy was strengthened because binding targets on total emissions were set for more pollutants, but there were slightly increased CO2 emissions due to employing more end-of-pipe measures of emission reduction.