The proposed activity aims to promote and facilitate knowledge sharing across provinces on key policies and programs to be developed under the 12th Five Year Plan for energy efficiency, especially in industry, in collaboration with Provincial Energy Conservation offices/centers. Two out of the following topics could be covered: (i) organization and administration of energy conservation supervision units; (ii) monitoring and verification of energy savings; (iii) energy conservation information platform; (iv) establishing local industrial energy efficiency standards (MEPS); and (v) assessment and analysis of phasing out backward capacity.

The objective of the project is to support the National Energy Administration (NEA) to evaluate the current taxation and pricing mechanisms for wind power in China and adopt necessary measures to improve the mechanisms to 1) provide enough incentive to local governments to receive wind farm investors without requesting additional investments in wind turbine equipment (which is currently resulting in a replication of wind turbine equipment manufacturing capacity and the development of low-quality equipment); 2) adjust the wind price regime to reflect the real cost of wind power production, which depends on the average wind speed in a specific area even within one region, and to provide appropriate incentives to investors in areas where the wind speed is relatively less, but the site is closer to a load center.

The proposed activity aims at assisting decision makers in China in defining appropriate criteria and benchmarks for the determination of low-carbon cities and select adequate indicators to measure progress to reach envisioned targets. Specifically, it will involve: (i) summarizing the experience to date of applying abatement cost curve and abatement scenarios as one of the analytical tools for decision making to set low-carbon targets at the city-level; (ii) conducting research and analysis of international and Chinese experience of standards and indicators for low-carbon cities; (iii) exploring consumption-based carbon emissions indicators in a Chinese city; and (iv) producing a policy note and conducting a dissemination workshop on recommendations.

The proposed activity will disseminate the recently completed book on ?Low Carbon Cities in China?. Specifically, it will involve: (i) policy dialogue and capacity building through dissemination of the book; and (ii) knowledge transfer through the provision of ?just in time? advice to cities who are interested in engaging with the World Bank operationally on developing low carbon cities strategies and projects.