12th Five-Year Plan

The Twelfth Five-Year Guideline was debated in mid-October 2010 at the fifth plenum of the 17th Central Committee, the same session in which Xi Jinping was selected as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. A full proposal for the plan was released following the plenum and approved by the National People's Congress (NPC) on 14 March 2011.^[1]

The goals of the plan included addressing rising inequality and creating an environment for more sustainable growth by prioritizing more equitable wealth distribution, increased domestic consumption, and improved social infrastructure and social safety nets.^[1] Improvements in the social safety net were intended to reduce precautionary saving.^{[2]: 197 } The plan sought to expand the services industry in order to increase employment and continue urbanization to help raise real wages.^{[2]: 186–197 }

The plan is representative of China's efforts to rebalance its economy, shifting emphasis from investment towards consumption^{[2]: 196–197 } and development from urban and coastal areas toward rural and inland areas â€“ initially by developing small cities and greenfield districts to absorb coastal migration. Economic rebalancing was the plan's core objective.^{[3]: 12 } The plan also continues to advocate objectives set out in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan to enhance environmental protection, accelerate the process of opening and reform, and emphasize Hong Kong's role as a center of international finance.^[1][4][5]

Early in the Twelfth Year Plan period, Chinese policymakers concluded that the China had achieved energy intensity targets set by the Eleventh Five-Year Plan.^{[6]: 54 } China had also emerged as a world leader in renewable energy technology.^{[6]: 54 } The Twelfth Five-Year Plan targeted the use of non-fossil fuel energy sources to 11.4% of energy use over 2011–2015.^{[7]: 28 } The Plan also provided for the development of an ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission corridor to increase the integration of renewable energy from the point of generation to its point of consumption.^{[7]: 39–41 } Additionally, the Plan called for gradual implementation of a national carbon trading market in China.^{[6]: 55 } To facilitate carbon trading and to more broadly help assess emissions targets and meet the transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement, the Plan improved the system for greenhouse gas emissions monitoring.^{[6]: 55 } This was the first time that carbon emissions trading had featured in one of China's Five-Year Plans.^{[8]: 80 }

The plan's sustainable development section also encouraged the development of eco-cities.^{[9]: 201 }

By 2015, China had achieved the energy intensity targets set by the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for hydro power, wind power, solar power, carbon intensity, energy intensity, and non-fossil share of primary energy.^{[6]: 56 }

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