China is launching a multibillion-dollar (-euro) effort to cut pollution and soaring coal and oil demand by raising energy efficiency in apartments and office buildings, The Associated Press quoted a government minister as saying today. Authorities are tightening standards and threatening to revoke developers' business licenses if they fail to comply, Qiu Baoxing, a deputy construction minister, said at a news conference. The government has made enforcing environmental and energy standards a priority in an effort to clean up damage from its two-decade-old economic boom, and to reduce reliance on imported fuel. «Construction of energy-intensive buildings is a huge waste and has become an obstacle to national development,» Qiu said. «For China to act in compliance with energy efficiency is important to achieving its goal of creating a resource-saving society.»
