Beijing orders a day without cars, elevators, air conditioning for civil servants

BEIJING: The Chinese Government had ordered civil servants to do without cars, elevators and air conditioning yesterday as part of an energy-saving awareness campaign, state media said.

The official China Daily newspaper said that Government employees were targeted in the one-day ban so they could serve as an example to others and because they use so much energy.

The paper said China's seven million public servants consume about five per cent of the country's total electricity a year, equal to the electricity consumed annually by 780 million farmers.

The State Council told central employees to leave their cars at home in favour of walking or taking public transport, to take stairs instead of elevators and to keep the air conditioning off, the paper said. Three decades of breakneck economic growth has left China facing serious energy and environmental problems, with air and water severely polluted and acute energy shortages.

The central government leadership earlier this year pledged to do more to encourage sustainable, or more environmentally-friendly, growth and explore energy alternatives to coal and oil.

China, Tuesday, AP