On May 18, 2012, the China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS) held a ceremony for the 2011 cycle of the National Lead List awards program. Officially known as the National Lead List of Excellent Enterprises and Energy-saving Products (中国节能产品企业榜), the program aims to advance energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction by motivating manufacturers to voluntarily improve the production and purchase of energy efficient products.

The program ranks manufacturers along criteria such as average energy efficiency ratio and total energy saved from all products sold, as well as energy efficiency levels of individual products. A total of 25 Chinese companies across ten product categories were recognized as energy efficiency business leaders. Every year the rankings are publicized nationally, and winning manufacturers are presented with certificates by leaders and officials of the Chinese Government, industry associations, and test labs. CLASP’s China Director, Steven Zeng, was invited to present one of the leading awards for this awards cycle.

In 2011, CLASP and the China Sustainable Energy Project (CSEP) supported CNIS in expanding the number of product categories in one of the three awards under the Lead List program. This year, the two organizations are supporting CNIS as it considers expanding the Lead List program to include retailers as well as manufacturers, which has the potential to drive the deployment of more energy efficient products to China’s market. CLASP is leading the effort to provide information to CNIS on similar awards programs in the U.S. and Japan.

In addition to the expansion of the Lead List program, the China State Council announced in May that it would allocate CNY 26.5 billion (approximately 4.2 billion USD) in subsidies to promote the purchase of energy-saving household appliances such as air conditioners, flat-panel TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and water heaters for one year. One month later, Chinese electronics retailer Gome announced that it would establish a special fund containing CNY 1 billion (157 million USD) to support the implementation of this policy.

In conjunction with the consumer awareness campaign for China’s energy label that CNIS launched in June, these activities indicate an increased emphasis on market transformation initiatives for energy efficient products in China.

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