A city in China doesn’t want its public servants to turn up the heat at work unless the temperature dips below a frigid 3 degrees Celsius.
Wenzhou, in the eastern Zhejiang province, is imposing the temperature-dependent heating policy to save energy and meet the province’s annual target for cutting carbon emissions, according to an announcement Sunday. The mandate, which will last until the end of the year, also stipulated that all government offices should keep their air conditioning units set to 16 degrees Celsius or below, and turn off all unnecessary lights.
When the rule went into effect Sunday, the average temperature in Wenzhou hovered around 14 degrees Celsius. The city’s minimum average temperature for the next seven days is expected to be around 5 degrees Celsius, with possible snowfall in some areas.
Yu Jianfeng, an official with the Wenzhou government, said that the new regulation only applies to government offices, and doesn’t restrict residences or businesses.
However, a teacher at a public university in Ningbo, another city in Zhejiang, said that her school had been ordered to implement a similar rule, suggesting it may be a province-wide initiative. Leaked documents circulating online claim that other provincial government offices, too, have been limiting heating to meet the energy target.
Zhejiang had planned to establish an energy “dual control” system — managing the total cap of energy use and improving energy efficiency — by the end of 2020. The target included curbing annual coal usage to 131 million tons by 2020, compared with 138 million tons in 2015.
