Heat-absorbent glass, a hydrogen-powered vehicle, water-recycling equipment and interactive demonstrations featuring a more conservation-oriented Shanghai are exhibited in town from yesterday.

The show, the local edition of a nationwide rotating exhibition, is designed to promote the development of conservation-minded society.

The central government has planned to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic consumption by 20 percent and major pollutant discharges by 10 percent by 2010 as part of its 11th five-year economic program.

"To achieve the targets, we must adopt both legal and economic measures," said He Bingguang, deputy chief at the environment and resources department of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, at the exhibition's opening ceremony.

A series of moves have reflected Shanghai's efforts to realize the central government's plan.

Since summer in 2004, government departments in Shanghai have turned the air conditioners above 26 degrees Celsius in their office buildings. And most name cards of the city's public servants are made of reused paper.

Shanghai, where industrial energy consumption accounts for more than 60 percent of the total, plans to issue particular targets for particular industries.

(Shanghai Daily July 10, 2006)