Abstract: Judging from the current situation, China’s energy conservation and emission reduction during the 12th Five-Year Plan period is still faced with severe challenges. Because China’s income level is still rather low, with the increase of the income level, China’s total energy consumption, energy consumption per unit of GDP and carbon dioxide emissions will continue to maintain the growth momentum. Therefore, China has a long way to go. Currently, the further development of China’s energy conservation and emission reduction is under the restriction of such factors as less competitiveness in the service sector, lacking of core technologies, limited financing channels, excessive enforcement measures, and insufficient incentives. Hence, we should take the following measures: to reduce the total energy consumption through the internal restructuring of the manufacturing sector; to improve energy use efficiency through further strengthening of technological innovations and promotion; to improve capital use effects through the market mechanisms by expanding financing channels; to turn the “brake mechanism”of the objective assessment into the improving mechanism for energy conservation and emission reduction through the reform of the assessment mechanism; and to encourage enterprises and individuals to make choices in favor of energy conservation and emission reduction through the improvement of the systems of taxes and subsidies.

Key words: energy conservation and emission reduction; driving factors; policy measures