Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") has issued the Measures for the Energy Conservation Review of Fixed Asset Investment Projects (the "Measures") which shall come into force as of January 1, 2017.
The Measures provide that, for a project invested by an enterprise, the construction unit needs to obtain the opinions on energy conservation review produced by the energy conservation review authority, prior to the commencement of the construction. In case of a project that has not been reviewed for the energy conservation purpose according to the Measures, or fails to pass such review, the construction unit shall not start construction and the project that has already been completed shall not be put into production or use. Moreover, the Measures set out that for a fixed asset investment project with annual comprehensive energy consumption of more than 5,000 tonnes of standard coal, its energy conservation review shall be carried out by the provincial energy conservation authority; while for other fixed asset investment projects, the power to review such projects for the energy conservation purpose may be determined by the provincial energy conservation authority at its discretion in accordance with realities. Furthermore, the Measures stress that the energy conservation authority shall record the information related to illegalities of any construction unit and intermediary, include such information into the national credit information sharing platform and the approval and regulation platform for investment projects, and publish such information on the website named CreditChina (creditchina.gov.cn).