Start Points and Challenges of Energy Conservation Policy Design: Case Study of Japan and Enlightenment to China

The Chinese economy is in a new transition period from an economic growth oriented style to a sustainable development model. In mainland China, the constraints of environments, resources, especially energy resources, have increasingly become the bottleneck of economic development after reform policy for more than thirty years. In this paper, we illustrate the basic structure of energy conservation and emission reduction from historic, institutional and comparative analysis based on Japan's case as an example of energy conservation. Our investigation shows the evolution of Japan's energy conservation policies from a view of energy security to the view of environment protection and low carbon economy. China is in a different development stage from Japan but China can learn some experiences and lessons from Japan in order to realize a sustainable development.