Chinese premier stresses stable energy supply, energy security

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the head of the national energy committee, presides over a meeting of the national energy committee in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 9, 2021. Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice head of the national energy committee, attended the meeting. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed ensuring stable energy supply and energy security and boosting green development support.

Li, also a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the head of the national energy committee, said at a Saturday meeting that the country should balance development and carbon reduction, deepen market-based reform in the energy sector, and promote green transformation, according to a press release issued on Monday.

Energy security bears on development security and national security, Li noted, stressing the country's need to build a modern energy system on the premise of ensuring security and strive to improve the capacity of independent energy supply.

China's goal of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality meets the country's economic transformation and upgrading requirements and also the need to jointly tackle climate change, the premier said.

Li called for efforts to ensure the stability of industrial and supply chains and sustained and steady economic development. These efforts should come amid moves to promote the clean use of coal, increase clean energy proportions in total energy consumption, and enhance green development capacity.

Li also stressed efforts to strengthen research and development in cutting-edge green and low-carbon technologies, improve the intelligence level of the power grid, and rely on market mechanisms to promote energy saving, emission reduction, and carbon reduction.