@inproceedings{BongardtEichhorst2009, author = {Bongardt, Daniel and Eichhorst, Urda}, title = {Old wine in new skins? : Experiences from adopting voluntary agreements in Chinese state-owned enterprises}, booktitle = {Act! Innovate! Deliver! Reducing energy demand sustainably : ECEEE 2009 Summer Study ; conference proceedings ; 1-6 June 2009, La Colle sur Loup, France ; volume 3}, editor = {Broussous, Christel}, publisher = {Europ. Council for an Energy Efficient Economy}, address = {Stockholm}, url = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:wup4-opus-32427}, pages = {1039 -- 1044}, year = {2009}, abstract = {The Chinese national government has put energy efficiency and pollution control at the heart of its 11th five-year plan (2005-2010). However, implementation of national policies at the local level is notoriously poor in China. In order to tackle this problem, voluntary agreements were signed between local Environmental Protection Bureaus and 14 mostly state-owned companies from different energy-intensive sectors in Nanjing, Xi'an and Kelamayi in the context of an ongoing EU-funded pilot project. In Nanjing, for instance, agreed targets are in the range of a 3-5\% reduction in energy intensity by 2009 over a 2007 baseline. The pilot agreements are informed by Dutch experiences with long-term agreements on energy efficiency (LTA/1989-1999) as European best practice, but have been significantly adjusted to Chinese circumstances. Much emphasis was put on process management applying a cooperative approach throughout. Each enterprise put together a so-called Energy Action Team for voluntary agreement development and implementation. This helped to create a sense of ownership in the companies and assigned clear responsibilities. Energy Action Teams conducted Energy Potential Scans in cooperation with a Dutch expert to identify energy saving potentials and possible measures to realize them. On this basis, achievable targets were agreed and a detailed action plan was developed. A first evaluation is scheduled for April 2009. By lifting industry on a more equal power level with government authorities, voluntary agreements showed to be an effective policy instrument to overcome traditional institutional constraints to environmental policy implementation at the local level in China.}, language = {en} }