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The mainland ranks 126th for environmental sustainability.

China, Hong Kong slip in energy sustainability ranking, says World Energy Council

World council blames weaker energy security for drop in position for two consecutive years

The mainland and Hong Kong have slipped in their energy sustainability world ranking for two years in a row because of weaker energy security, according to the World Energy Council.

Mainland China's overall ranking dropped to 78 out of 129 nations graded, from 76 last year and 74 in 2011. Hong Kong's fell to 40 from 38 last year and 31 in 2011, according to a report published last month by the United Nations-accredited body.

Countries and regions are ranked on three performance criteria: energy supply security; affordability and equity of access; and environmental sustainability. The overall rankings are captured by an "energy sustainability index" that also incorporates a country or region's political, social and economic strength.

Joan MacNaughton, the executive chair of the body's world energy trilemma study group, said the fall in rankings did not necessarily mean a lack of improvement on absolute terms. She said it could signal a need to catch up with other nations. "A fall in ranking means a country or region has to redouble its effort to improve," she said.

Based in London, the World Energy Council is an international body with representation from government, business, academia and other energy-related stakeholders. Its rankings are based on an analysis of 23 indicators spread across the energy security, equity and environmental mitigation criteria.

The decline in mainland China's overall ranking was driven by the fall in its energy security ranking to 18 from 12 last year and 10 in 2011.

It saw ranking declines in five out of six underlying indicators, including the ratio of energy production to consumption, energy distribution losses as a percentage of generation, oil product inventory and two indicators on energy imports reliance.

Its ranking for diversity of energy sources in electricity generation climbed.

Still, energy security is mainland China's strong suit out of the three criteria. It ranks 101st out of 129 nations on energy affordability and access equity and 126th on environmental sustainability. Those two rankings have changed little over the past three years. Affordability has been held back by higher petrol and electricity prices, as Beijing reformed the motor-fuel pricing mechanism, which saw a gradual fall in subsidies to end-users with higher coal costs passed on to electricity users.

"There are efforts to decrease energy and emission intensity ... however, China fails to improve its ranking on the environmental sustainability dimension as peer countries improve more," the report said.

Hong Kong's overall decline in ranking in the past two years was driven by a fall in its energy security ranking to 99 from 84 last year and 77 in 2011 amid reliance on energy imports.

Its position in energy equity and affordability climbed to 24 from 33 in 2011. Its environmental sustainability ranking improved to 58 from 64 in 2011.

The World Energy Council published the report to set the stage for discussions among the heads of big energy firms and policymakers at the 22nd World Energy Congress that begins today in Daegu, South Korea.

Meanwhile, mainland China became the world's biggest net oil importer last month, surpassing the United States, according to US government data.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Mainland, HK sustainability rankings decline
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