ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC INCENTIVE POLICIES... 43the “Action on Accelerating the Implementation of the Development
of Green Building in China (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Action’)” in
2012 (Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural
Development 2013 ). The Action states that economic incentive policies,
standards and evaluation systems improvements, and technological devel-
opment processes should be addressed when promoting green building
development in China. The Action requires that all new public buildings
receiving government investments (at any level) must meet the Green
Standards after 2014. The Action also presents a plan for creating 1 billion
square meters of new green building space in 2015 and for increasing the
green building share to 30 % of all new buildings by 2020. By December
31, 2013, 1446 buildings were officially identified as green buildings (both
green design and green operations), and the total green building area cov-
ered 162.7 million square meters. Among these buildings, 1342 cover an
area of 150 million square meters, and 92.8 % of all green buildings were
certified as green buildings at the design stage. A total of 104 buildings
covering an area of 12.8 million square meters (representing 7.2 % of all
green buildings) were awarded green labels at the operation stage.
A subsidy scheme is also set in place under the Action, which awards
subsidies only to green operation buildings. The average subsidy awarded
by the central government is 45 yuan^2 /m^2 for two-star green buildings
and 80 yuan/m^2 for three-star green buildings in China. In addition to
the central government’s subsidy scheme, local governments also some-
times issue their own subsidy schemes to promote the development of
local green buildings (Table 3.5).
(^2) The reference exchange rate between yuan (i.e., CNY) and USD is 6.27 yuan =1 USD.
(a)(b)
Fig. 3.1 Three-star green labels for buildings in China. (a) Three-star green
label for the operation stage (b) Three-star green label for the design stage