China’s National Bureau of Statistics released the full-year energy supply and demand data for 2012 last week, providing an early indication of how the country has done in delivering on the key emissions reductions goals set out in the plan.

In a report card, New York-based consulting firm Rhodium Group, notes China’s efforts to curb emissions have been a tough balancing act, but one where it has been able to deliver measurable outcomes on its big three energy ambitions.

One of the key goals of the 12th Five Year Plan, to be implemented between 2011 and 2015, was to reduce the energy intensity of the economy by 16%.

The NBS review showed the overall energy demand in China had increased by 3.9% last year, the slowest rate in more than a decade.

Electricity demand also was up by only 5.5% after increasing by more than 12% on average between 2001-2011.

However, while the figures are impressive, the Rhodium Group report points out that much of the decrease came as “there was a change in the structure of economic growth that reduced the energy intensity of Chinese GDP”.

Of significance is the fact industrial output was cut, resulting in lower coal use as coal fuels just below 80% of Chinese electricity generation. Coal demand fell to 2.5% last year from 9.7% in 2011, while oil and natural gas demand held up.

“Both have more consumption-led demand exposure than coal that hedges their investment-led demand risk, and as a result both continued to grow at close to 2011 levels last year,” the report says.

“But since oil and natural gas account for less than 25% of Chinese energy supply combined, overall energy demand fell sharply on the back of coal and power.”

The report notes that while this could spell bad news for bulk commodities, it is definitely a shot in the arm for policy makers trying to get the country back on track after a year in which energy intensity was down by a mere 1.9%.

China also appears to be within the striking distance of achieving its second policy goal of increasing the share of non-fossil fuel in the energy mix to 11.4% of total supply.

Though overall power demand decreased, the share of renewable energy in China’s electricity generation grew to 19.4% from 15.7%. This is largely due to recovery in hydro power and upswing in wind power generation.

Preliminary estimates suggest the share of total energy supply from non-fossil sources increased from 8% to 9.9%.

“That puts Beijing in striking range of achieving its 11.4% target by 2015, though the big gains in 2012 will be tough to replicate this year,” Rhodium says.

Perhaps the most challenging though has been to cut the carbon intensity of the GDP by 17%.

The country’s slower energy growth and increased non-fossil energy supply did cut emissions growth last year.

Rhodium estimates CO2 emissions rose 3.2%, down from the 9.3% year-on-year growth in 2011. Put another way, carbon intensity of the economy declined 4.3%, which is steep compared with intensity levels that were unchanged in 2011.

“But the carbon intensity of Chinese GDP will need to fall even faster – by 4.6% a year between now and 2015 – to meet Beijing’s 12th Five Year Plan commitment,” Rhodium Group said.