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BEIJING (AP) - China is falling short of its goals in a campaign to boost energy efficiency in its fuel-guzzling economy — the world's No. 2 oil consumer — but is starting to make progress, the government said Thursday.
China launched a five-year effort in 2006 to cut energy use per unit of economic output by 20 percent amid mounting worries about pollution and dependence on imported oil, which communist leaders see as a strategic weakness.
But last year's reduction was only 1.33 percent, well below the 4 percent annual target, Xie Fuzhan, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a news conference.
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