Zhejiang province launched its 2020 Publicity Week on Energy Conservation on June 29. It is themed around energy efficiency and protecting the environment.

The province uses the publicity week as an opportunity to save energy and cut down on resource consumption.

Zhejiang, though one of China's most affluent provinces, has relatively scarce energy reserves and natural resources, with merely 5 percent of its primary energy produced within the province. Hence, energy conservation is necessary for the province's continued economic development.

In recent years, Zhejiang has been striving to develop itself into a model province for clean energy, and many of its high-energy-consuming factories have been closed down or upgraded. Since 2016, the province's GDP has been rising at an average annual rate of 7.3 percent, while its average annual energy consumption growth rate is just 3.3 percent.

As a result of industrial and energy restructuring, coal consumption as a percentage of primary energy consumption in Zhejiang dropped from 52.4 percent in 2015 to 45.3 percent in 2019.

"Zhejiang has been making steady progress in energy conservation in recent years, but there is still much room for improvement when compared to more advanced regions of the world," said an official from the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission.