[Parliament]The government invests 300 million yuan to improve energy consumption in public areas over the next five years

The government will invest about 300 million yuan in the next five years to support projects that can improve the performance of building energy consumption in the public sector to achieve the goals set by the Green Public Service Program, with significant cost savings in the long run.

Dr. Xu Lian-sung, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Environment and Senior Minister of Transportation, said Tuesday (March 4) when debating the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Environment (Sutra) on the Congressional Appropriations Committee that the government will allocate about RMB 300 million to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in public sectors.

This amount will be invested in valuable projects over the next five years to achieve our climate goals and achieve returns through life cycle cost savings.

Xu Liansheng pointed out that projects that meet the criteria can be to transform energy-consuming equipment or install smart systems to improve energy efficiency.

Public sphere facilities such as office buildings, hospitals and subway stations have the opportunity to receive support. For example, the heat recovery system of Tan Tosen Hospital uses the heat generated by the mini refrigerator to replace the electric heater that consumes electricity, saving 800,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equivalent to 240,000 yuan in electricity bills per year.

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The amount could be used to pilot innovative and cost-effective solutions that not only drive the industry but also enhance energy service capabilities in the built environment.

“The public sector takes the lead in this area and helps catalyze more private buildings to improve energy efficiency,” she said.

Singapore aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, with the public sector commitment five years ahead of schedule to achieve this goal by 2045. To this end, existing buildings must be optimized to improve energy efficiency and accelerate the progress towards a low-carbon built environment.

At the same time, the government continues to expand the green procurement evaluation standards. Starting from the 2025 fiscal year, government agencies will select event venues and event management services in bidding, and will also take environmental sustainable development as a consideration factor and include them in the scoring standards.

In addition, bidding for facility management will also be included in environmental sustainability considerations.

In order to further reduce emissions, since the 2024 fiscal year, government bidding assessments have gradually included considerations related to environmental sustainability. The first bidding in the fields of large-scale construction and information and communication technology will be reserved, with up to 5% of the scores for environmental sustainability considerations.

Authorities will assess whether large building bidders conduct climate-related disclosures, how many low-carbon measures are adopted during construction, and obtain sustainability-related certifications. For the field of information and communication technology, the evaluation criteria include whether the hardware supplier uses sustainable packaging or has sustainability-related certification.