China: Prohibit the air conditioner if the temperature is lower than 33oC

Nanjing city government, Jiangsu province, east China has banned government buildings from using air conditioning if the temperature has not reached 33 ^° C.

Nanjing is the latest city to set limits on the use of air-conditioning as the government's pressure to save energy in the summer of this year begins to take effect.

An official from the city's agriculture and forestry department asked not to be named, but his colleagues initially felt uncomfortable without the cool air but got used to it."As government officials, we must also contribute to saving energy."

Last year, the Nanjing government gradually increased the limit allowed to turn on air conditioning from 28 to 30 ^° C but this year some buildings still did not comply with the decision. The new limit was fixed after Pyongyang and Yangzhou, the eastern city, set up an energy police group to check whether electricity consumption of buildings met national standards.

Chinese cabinet members also called on public officials to remove suitcases and wear T-shirts to agencies to cool cheaply and demanded that state agencies not set air conditioners lower than 26 ^° C. China's demand for energy increased sharply when its economy exploded 15 years ago.

Currently, some areas in Shanghai have been disconnected and officials are concerned that summer power outages will occur frequently due to the overloaded energy network in the country's largest city.

The Chinese government has set a target to cut electricity consumption by GDP by 20% by 2010 but in the first year of implementation, the plan has failed.

Hoai Linh