Green becomes defining feature of development in China: official

State Grid employees inspect photovoltaic panels in Chuzhou, Anhui province. BEIJING - Green is the defining feature of China's development in the new era and remarkable progress has been made in the country's green and low-carbon transformation, said Tian Chunxiu, deputy director of the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. In the energy sector, for example, China's annual energy consumption growth averaged 3 percent in the new era since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress in 2012, while its average annual economic growth exceeded 6 percent and its energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped by 26.8 percent, making it one of the countries with the fastest reduction in energy intensity worldwide, she revealed. The installed capacity of renewable energy currently exceeds that of thermal power plants in China, and China's scale of development and utilization of renewable energy ranks first in the world. China, in the new era, has created many successful practices, as the world's largest developing country has managed to effectively protect its ecological environment, while also achieving rapid economic and social development, Tian said, citing significant improvements in China's ecological environment.