China’s State Council (Cabinet) has directed its local governments to buy more energy-efficient, eco-friendly and energy-saving products in its public purchases. This latest directive is pursuant to the stricter implementation of China’s ‘Government Purchase Law’ which contains a compulsory green procurement list comprising nine types ofproducts – air conditioners, fluorescent lamps, televisions, electric water heaters, computers, printers, computer monitors, urinals and toilet pans and water nozzles.
China has targeted local authorities as a prime mover to achieve the nation’s overall objective of ‘cleaner’ economic growth:
- local authorities, by virtue of their relatively larger spending power, have the capacity to implement utilization and supply of green products to their projects and programmes to help reduce any negative environmental impact;
- environmentally improved products are often niche products and increased demand by local authorities will help move such products into mainstream markets;
- public procurement will stimulate greater and faster technological breakthroughs and ultimately lead to lower unit costs and mass production; and China’s requirement for strict implementation of the compulsory green procurement list will encourage more suppliers to go green and have their products registered in the green procurement list.
China also attaches significance to the wider use of new and renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and nuclear to meet the country’s insatiable demand for power. The government’s determined push for green government procurement will lead towards the rapid development of an efficient, energy-saving industry in the country.