The 26 Degrees Campaign : Saving Energy. QIAO Liming and WANG Peng

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1 The 26 Degrees Campaign : Saving Energy QIAO Liming and WANG Peng Background: In recent years economic growth in China has outstripped its electrical power generating capacity, leading to shortages from 2003 to 2005 in cities throughout the country. Widespread use of air-conditioning has created acute shortages in recent summers. In 2004 six NGOs met the crisis head-on by initiating the 26 C (78.8 F) Air-Conditioning Energy-Saving Campaign, also known as The 26 Degrees Campaign. Over 50 NGOs around the country joined the effort to help rollout the campaign. The main goal of this campaign was to encourage government policymakers to create legislation requiring enterprises to set thermostats to 26 degrees. In June 2005 this goal was achieved when the government laid down a statute that air-conditioning should be set at or above 26 degrees Celsius in public buildings during the summer days. I. The Concept behind the 26 Degrees Campaign The campaign was built around the idea of keeping air-conditioned buildings at or above 26 degrees Celsius. In recent years the Chinese have developed a growing appetite for air-conditioners. In developed cities, air conditioners consume about 40% of the peak electrical load in summer. This large share of demand is driven by many factors. First, most buildings in China are poorly insulated, and are generally energy inefficient, thus causing air-conditions to work especially hard. Second, most air-conditioners are low-efficiency units. Third, most Chinese have not adopted energy saving practices and waste energy by leaving air conditioners on to cool empty rooms or leave doors and windows open in air-conditioned rooms. Changing the way that air-conditioners are used in public buildings such as hotels and shopping malls can yield huge benefits. By adopting the 26 degree standard in public buildings, China will save 90 million kilowatts by 2020, when the country achieves moderate levels of prosperity and development throughout the country. This represents enormous savings: five times the output of the Three Gorges Dam and two to three times the output of nuclear power plants planned to be online in Energy savings will reduce the need to invest in electrical power infrastructure by 400 billion RMB. Energy conservation will also take pressure off input prices connected to power development. As well, energy savings reduce all manner of environmental costs. 1

2 An analysis of the impact of raising thermostat settings conducted by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) makes these general claims concrete. Using Beijing as the basis of its analysis, the NRDC estimates if the temperature of air-conditioning increased from to 26-28, electric power would be saved by 400 million to over 600 million kilowatt-hours; peak demand would decline by 500 to 750 thousand kilowatts. Consumers would enjoy savings of 180 to 270 million RMB. The report also noted some of the environmental benefits: sulfur dioxide emissions would be reduced by tons; a staggering reduction of 400,000 to 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide would also be realized. Thus the pressure of power demand would be lessened; the cost would be cut down and global warming would be alleviated. 1 II. A Brief Account of the 26 Degrees Campaign A.What is an Environmental Campaign? The 26 Degrees Campaign is an environmental campaign using informational tools to influence government policies. Such campaigns use approaches applied in traditional environmental publicity and education, but with particular differences. Environmental education may operate without a definite time frame, making program evaluation difficult. Contrary to environmental education, an environmental campaign works toward clear, measurable goals within a definite time frame. A typical campaign can advocate a certain policy during a certain period of time. For instance, a campaign may aim to replace plastic shopping bags with cloth bags in a city s supermarkets by a certain date. An effective campaign proceeds from a plan that includes three key elements: a definite goal, strategies to achieve this goal and tactics/actions to carry out these strategies. The goal of a campaign is almost always long-term and macrosocial; strategies provide the general approach to achieve this goal. Tactics/actions refer to the concrete activities designed to carry out campaign strategies, such as hosting press conferences, writing and publishing relevant reports and so on. Every specific tactic/action needs to evolve within the strategic framework. The media are a very important partner of such campaigns. Those who launch a campaign create news events to attract media attention and through the media s ability to amplify messages, spread the word on the importance and credibility of the message contained within the campaign. Scientific institutions serve as another important partner. Writing, publishing, and circulating scientific reports are one of the campaign strategies/ tactics. Policy lobbying plays a central role in the tactics and actions available to campaigners. 1 Dr. Kang Yanbing from the NDRC Air-conditioning and Energy Conservation: an Inevitable Choice, address given at the launch ceremony of the 26 Degrees Campaign on June 26,

3 B. Analysis of the 26 Degrees Campaign 1. The united action of NGOs The 26 Degree Campaign was jointly initiated in 2004 by several well-known Chinese and international NGOs: the Global Village Beijing, the World Wildlife Fund, the China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO), Friends of Nature, the Institute for the Environment and Development and Green Earth Volunteers. The international composition of this group stands out as one of the most remarkable characteristics of the campaign. Several other organizations joined this group in 2005 including the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association (CECPA), Friends of the Earth (HK), and Conservation International (CI). CECPA and CI took part in the campaign by contributing financial support while Friends of the Earth mainly developed the campaign in Hong Kong. Though these organizations have different backgrounds, they worked cooperatively by sending their staff members to form an energy conservation action group. 2. The designing and implementing of the framework of the 26 Degrees Campaign The 26 Degrees Campaign had a definite goal and time frame. The group heading the campaign committed to realizing two intermediate targets, between 2004 and 2006; the final objective of creating a government sanctioned standard of 26 degrees would be fulfilled at the end of three years. a. The campaign s goal was basically achieved in the first year From June the 26 th to September the 26 th 2004, the first stage of the 26 Degrees Campaign was carried out in Beijing. It appealed to air-conditioning consumers, including governmental departments at all levels, state-owned and private enterprises, embassies in Beijing, the offices of transnational companies, hotels and restaurants, various other businesses, and urban residents, to participate in this campaign. Each type of community participant had to be targeted specifically; roles for each were specified as well. To generate media exposure, organizers created news events touting the campaign. These events required many types of participation, from environmental envoys who attended the launch ceremony, to volunteer cyclists riding bicycles through streets of Beijing for publicity purposes, delivering a letter of appeal to the 2008 Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), and giving awards to enterprises which set air-conditioning at 26 degrees so that other enterprises would follow their example. Lectures were given to spread the concept of 26 degree air-conditioning, especially its health benefits. Following lectures, the film The Day after Tomorrow was shown, which described one possible scenario of global climatic change. The 26 degree concept was also introduced to communities through awards given to model energy saving-communities. To attract the participation of young people, lively activities like concerts were presented in order to generate interest. 3

4 The campaign focused especially on hotels, which used powerful air-conditioners that consumed a lot of electricity. The objective was to push hotel associations and the 2008 BOCOG to include the 26 degree air-conditioning standard as part of a green hotels label. The action group successfully persuaded 10 five-star hotels and numerous office buildings to take part in the campaign by setting the air-conditioning in public areas at or above 26 degrees in the summer. b. The campaign s goal was readjusted in response to the improvement of the policy environment in the second year The 26 Degrees Campaign entered its second stage from June the 26 th to September the 26 th 2005 in Beijing. The focus of the campaign at this stage was to distribute "26 degrees commitment cards" to public indoor spaces such as office buildings, restaurants and shopping malls. These cards would be completed by the participants who were willing to be supervised by the NGOs during the three summer months. The goal was to consolidate and advance the achievement of the first year by getting 50 more hotels and restaurants to use the 26 degree standard, and to continue lobbying the hotel associations and tourism bureaus to adopt the standard as industry-wide practice. Progress came quickly, partly because the national policy environment was more open to resource-conservation issues. The larger goal of creating a regulated standard of setting air conditioning to 26 degrees in the public spaces of commercial buildings was realized in 2005, a full year ahead of schedule. On June the 30 th 2005, Premier Wen Jiabao pointed out in his speech titled Spurring the Development of a Conservation-minded Society that in the summer air-conditioning in government offices and meeting rooms should not be set below 26 C. He added that except for special occasions regarding important state or foreign affairs, suits and ties were not required, allowing employees to stay cooler in summer months, further reducing air-conditioning demands. His remarks roused an enormous social response. On July 5 th, the Departmental Affairs Management Bureaus of the State Council and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued a notice designed to bolster conservation efforts throughout State and Party departments. This notice specifically required every department to set the air-conditioning at or above 26 C in offices and meeting rooms, and stating that airconditioners should be turned off in empty buildings or rooms. Windows would remain closed while air-conditioning remained on. In responding to the call from the central government and the Central Committee of the CPC aimed at coping with the summertime electricity peak, Beijing s municipal government declared that from July the 1st to August 31 st, 2005, the temperature in office buildings of Party and governmental departments at all levels would remain at or above 26 C. On July 27 th, the Beijing municipal government sent an open letter to all corporations in Beijing, urging them to save every kilowatt-hour of electricity by committing to energy conservation" and requesting that they adopt the 26 degree standard in all buildings of restaurants, hotels, offices and public areas. 4

5 Then the action group began to actually measure the temperatures in public buildings and relayed to the media of buildings which did not meet the standard. At the same time, the action group encouraged NGOs outside of Beijing to implement the 26 Degrees Campaign in other localities. Fifty-one environmental NGOs around the country responded positively to this request. On June 26 th, 2005, the embassies of Germany and Burundi agreed to join this campaign and promised to set their air-conditioning at 26 C in their office and residential spaces. Soon, the China Environmental News Publication, the Sino-Japanese Environmental Protection and Communication Center, and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences made the same commitment. On July 30 th, 2005, the China Association for NGO Cooperation, Environmental Defense and several environmental NGOs in the Yangtze River Delta jointly signed-on to participate in the 26 Degrees Campaign Green Yangtze River Delta, Our Commitment in Shanghai to alleviate the shortage of electric power supply in summer. In the summer of 2005, Haier Co. Ltd became the first air-conditioner manufacturer to commit to the 26 Degrees Campaign by promoting research of products and customer guidance. More than 2000 employees signed their names on the commitment cards. C. An Assessment of the 26 Degrees Campaign 1. NGOs played a positive role in promoting the 26 Degrees Campaign The 26 Degrees Campaign achieved its goal of changing public policy in advance in 2005 for several reasons. First, even before 2005, the government had created energy-saving policies and guidelines supporting conservation efforts. Second, power shortages have made energy conservation a pressing need. These conditions helped to set the stage for the campaign. Building on this foundation, the action committee and participating NGOs could drive the process forward to its successful resolution. Before taking these actions, the campaign organizers introduced the 26 degrees concept in the summer of In response to power shortages, the 26 Degree Campaign was offered as an energy saving response. Within three months the 26 degrees concept appeared in about 100 media reports. At the end of the 2004 part of the campaign, a questionnaire delivered to 252 randomly selected respondents showed that about 40% had heard of the 26 Degrees Campaign, and respondents knew that NGOs had initiated this effort. Clearly media exposure had had a positive effect. Campaign directors, taking full advantage of NGOs flexibility and responsiveness, organized activities frequently about one every two weeks. Each activity targeted a different group in order to generate media attention. This approach carried the risk of moving from target to target before a deep impression had been made. But generally speaking, the campaign s strategy of getting more widespread media coverage, rather than deeper coverage, worked successfully. 5

6 Throughout these parts of the campaign, organizers stayed in touch with the government and continued working toward the ultimate goal of introducing legislative changes regarding air-conditioning use. Before the launch ceremony on June 26, 2004, Liao Xiaoyi, president of Global Village Beijing (GVB), used her position as an environmental consultant for the 2008 BOCOG s Department of Environmental Affairs to lobby for the inclusion of the 26 degree standard to be applied to all hotels contracted with the BOCOG. Organizers further strengthened their efforts by having representatives of the National Development and Reform Commission and chief officials of China Tourist Hotels Association (CTHA) in charge of formulating standards for hotel industry in China in attendance at the campaign launch. After the ceremony, the action group organized a volunteer biking activity; cyclists delivered the letter of appeal for the 26 Degrees Campaign to the BOCOG s Department of Environmental Affairs. This particular move was the first lobbying effort targeting the government. Even after concluding its 2004 activities, camping organizers continued lobbying efforts. For instance, Liao Xiaoyi used her BOCOG platform to repeatedly call for the government to formulate legislation regulating air-conditioning temperatures. Concurrently, Global Village Beijing continued working on the Campaign by introducing a new slogan--- set air-conditioners a degree lower in winter, which won praise from BOCOG and CTHA. Clearly, progress was being made on several fronts. 2. The 26 Degrees Campaign as a model for inter-organizational cooperation among NGOs The 26 Degrees Campaign stands out as a successful experiment in inter-organizational cooperation among NGOs. Earlier attempts at forming coalitions among NGOs had met with difficulty due to differences in principles, styles and missions. In previous attempts to coordinate activities, usually one or two NGOs took the lead on initiatives and shouldered much of the work; their confederates usually offered moral support without much actual involvement. But in the 26 Degrees Campaign true inter-organizational cooperation among NGOs was realized as all parties got equally involved and took coordinated actions, competently reacting to changing conditions. The action group deserves credit for this coordinating effort; however, they could not have achieved so much without the authorization of the participating NGOs who communicated with great effectiveness and gave the action committee their backing. The foundation for this part of the effort was laid down by the leaders of the founding six NGOs who reached an agreement on forming a cooperative alliance and an action group. Each organization took charge of some part of the routine work of the coalition, and in turn, members in the action group enjoyed great freedom to make decisions and take action on behalf of the coalition s members. The group held regular meetings every other week, set up contact lists and held ad hoc meetings to deal with urgent matters in order to coordinate information and make democratic decisions. Clearly, every participating NGO stayed engaged and the action group worked diligently and met challenges decisively. Ⅲ. The 26 Degrees Campaign Calls for Wider Public Participation 6

7 The 26 Degrees Campaign was mainly proposed by environmental NGOs in Beijing. Introduced at a time of more liberalized policymaking, the campaign won warm responses from all types of citizens and organizations, particularly NGOs, throughout Chinese society. The Campaign was initiated at the right time, at the right place and for the right reasons; the organizers then harnessed these conditions successfully. Their efforts have provided many useful lessons for developing environmental protection campaigns in China. Even so questions and debate remain. Some observers are divided on the effects of the 26 Degrees Campaign. For instance, some people doubt the effectiveness of media campaigns for changing public and business behaviors. Further, many think that a more focused campaign would yield deeper and longer-lasting results. Broader questions remain as well: Is 26 degrees the proper target temperature? How should energy conservation efforts, including this one, be measured? How has the campaign influenced the country as a whole? In spite of everything, the 26 Degrees Campaign is a remarkable example of NGOs cooperation and serves as a model for collectively organized environmental action. Even though the 26 Degrees Campaign has been a resounding success in cultivating advocates and adherents among the Central and local governments, numerous private enterprises, and dozens of NGOs, much remains to be done to encourage participation in such efforts by the whole of society. In the summer of 2005 a survey showed that air-conditioners in most public places throughout China still ran below 26 C, with many air-conditioners in Beijing s public spaces running at 23 C to 24 C. 2 Controlling the temperature of air-conditioning is not an isolated issue. To finally achieve a society-wide impact, wider and greater efforts must heighten awareness of the whole complex of issues related to air-conditioning use, such as energy conservation, the need for more energy efficient air-conditioning units, and the crucial role for government regulation and enforcement in assuring that clear, universally applicable standards exist and that means to enforcement such measures can be fairly but forcefully applied. (Qiao Liming is with the World Wildlife Fund and Wang Peng is a volunteer activist working for environmental protection) 2 Gu Kefei, Difficulties in Carrying out the 26 Degree Campaign, Consumption Daily, September, 6,