The total energy consumption of Maoming increased from 16.15 million metric tons of standard coal in 2015 to 17.11 million tons of standard coal in 2020, but experienced a 17.61 percent decrease in energy consumption per unit of GDP over the past five years.

The city has fulfilled the goals set by the Guangdong provincial government for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20). They were to control the total energy consumption to under 18.45 million tons of standard coal and reduce the energy consumption per unit of GDP by 17.6 percent compared with that at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).

From 2016 to 2020, the energy consumption structure of Maoming has been improved. The city's raw coal consumption in 2020 was 3.45 million tons of standard coal, down 10.6 percent from 2015, while the consumption of electricity and natural gas in 2020 increased by 64.4 percent and 535.8 percent respectfully compared with 2015.

The beautiful Open-pit Mine Ecological Park in Maoming. [Photo/WeChat account: maofabu]

The proportion of electricity and natural gas consumption in the city's total energy consumption increased from 7.7 percent and 0.1 percent in 2015 to 11.8 percent and 0.79 percent in 2020, respectively.

By adopting advanced energy-saving technologies and promoting technical transformation, the overall per-unit energy consumption of major products in Maoming decreased during the past five years.

The comprehensive energy consumption of ethylene production in the chemical materials and products manufacturing industry decreased by 2.6 percent, and that of the cement clinker per ton in the non-metallic mineral products industry decreased by 0.2 percent.

Maoming started building itself into a National Forest City in July 2016. By the end of 2020, the city's forest coverage rate was 55.81 percent and the urban green coverage rate was 43.76 percent. It had excellent or good air quality on 98.9 percent of days in 2020, topping the province and 6.3 percentage points higher than the previous year.

The city built 98 sewage treatment plants during the past five years, with a daily sewage treatment capacity of 623,300 tons, which is 255,800 tons more than in 2015. The harmless treatment rate of urban household garbage has been maintained at 100 percent since 2015.