BEIJING, April 4(Xinhua)-- To implement the decision of the State Council, State Energy Office, National Development and Reform Commission and Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council held a conference in Beijing on January 24 to establish a drafting team of the Energy Law. As a result, the program of drafting China's Energy Law was unveiled.

The conference pointed out that the formulating Energy Law is a strategic decision of the Central Committee of CPC and the State Council to cope with the complicate and urgent energy situation in the world. Energy is a key strategic issue concerning China's economic development, social stability and national security. In recent years, great achievements have been made in China's energy development and a preliminary energy supply mix is taking shape with coal as the principal part, electricity as the core and all-round development of oil, natural gas and renewable energies. However, with rapid economic development, the contradictions in the energy field accumulated in the past years gradually cropped up and the complicated and volatile international environment poses new challenges to China's energy and economic security. Moreover, China lacks a basic energy law which reflects the energy strategy and policy orientation and coordinates ties between energies and energy-related activities comprehensively. This situation fails to meet the requirement for building a well-off society in an all-round way and realizing the sustainable economic and social development. As a result, it's an urgent need to formulate a basic and comprehensive law to cope with these complicated contradictions and problems properly.

The conference emphasized that it is of great significance to formulate the Energy Law which tallies with the national conditions and gears to the need of the future. Firstly, it contributes to implementing China's energy development strategy, upgrading the national energy development strategy and the comprehensive and long-term energy policy to operable laws and regulations supported by the mandatory state force. Secondly, confirming the legal status of medium- and long-term development planning of energy is conducive to ensuring national economic security, promoting energy prospecting and development, reinforcing international energy cooperation, improving an energy conservation system and energy emergency system, enhancing the independent innovation-making ability of energy science and technology and ensuring energy supply safety. Thirdly, it is necessary to build a conservation-oriented and environment-friendly society, promote the optimization of the energy mix, advance a recyclable economy, implement clean production in an all-round way and promote the economic growth mode that features low input, low-energy consumption, low pollution and high efficiency. Fourthly, it is good to upgrade the safety level of energy production, perfect an energy safe production system, specify the responsibility of safe production and boost the technological and management innovation in safe energy production. Fifthly, it's imperative to establish and improve China's energy law system, boost the transformation of governmental functions, and strengthen and improve energy management.

The conference stated that the State Council has approved the establishment of an inter-ministerial drafting team in order to strengthen the leadership and mobilize forces from all departments to co-draft the law. Mr. Ma Kai, minister in charge of NDRC and director of the Office of National Energy Leading Group, serves as the team leader with a total of 15 units as members, including the Office of the National Energy Leading Group, NDRC, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Commerce, the Sate-Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the State Environmental Protection Administration, the State Administration of Work Safety, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, NPC Financial and Economic Committee, NPC Environmental and Resources Committee and Office of the State Organization Commission. At the same time, in line with the requirements for scientific and democratic decision-making and open legislation, experts and scholars from such fields as energy, law, economy and public management have formed an expert team to offer consultancy to the drafting team.

The conference called on relevant departments to pay great attention to and expand cooperation in the drafting work with a high historical sense of responsibility and mission and in the spirit of reform and innovation. It is imperative to adopt the scientific concept of development in an all-round way, reflect the approach of putting people first and building a harmonious society, and make efforts to solve pronounced contradictions and problems in energy development by fully referring to foreign and domestic experience and achievements in legislation on energy based on the national condition. We shall stick to democratic and scientific legislation, conduct a thorough investigation and study, fully develop democracy, encourage the active participation of the public, and pool intelligence from all aspects to draft a high-quality Energy Law which can endure the examination of practice and history.