China may extend energy-saving goal to 2020 -paper

BEIJING May 15 (Reuters) - China might extend through 2020 its goal of improving energy efficiency, the official China Daily reported on Friday, citing sources involved in a government discussion.

The government failed to meet its yearly reduction target of 4 percent in 2006 but has retained an overall 20 percent reduction goal for the five-year period ending in 2010.

Now that goal of cutting energy intensity -- or energy consumption used in generating each dollar of gross domestic product -- could be extended for another decade, according to a source close to the country's climate change office.

"I was told that between 2011-20, China will probably promise to achieve the same energy-saving target as it is doing during the 2006-10 period," the source, who was invited to an internal meeting held by National Development and Reform Commission, told the China Daily.

The report did not make clear whether the 2011-20 target aimed to cut energy intensity by 20 percent as a whole or by 4 percent a year during the 10-year period.

China's energy intensity in the first quarter of this year fell 2.89 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 4.59 percent decline in energy use per unit of GDP for the whole of 2008. (Reporting by Eadie Chen and Tom Miles; Editing by Ken Wills) (eadie.chen@reuters.com; +8610 6627 1268; Reuters Messaging: eadie.chen.reuters.com@reuters.net))