Building a resources-saving society is not merely a question of simple thrift, there is still need for an all-round reduction in the consumption of material resources by increasing the technological content. Frugality and thrift is highly necessary, but this alone cannot fundamentally solve the problem regarding rapid economic development; improving the efficiency of resources utilization is of more positive significance.

It is necessary to fully rely on scientific and technological progress to raise the efficiency of resources utilization through study on and development and use of advanced high and new technology, special efforts have to be made in these aspects toward the direction of building a resources-saving society.

In regard to improving the efficiency of the utilization of coal, future emphasis should be on developing the gasification and liquefaction of coal and other clean coal technologies. Because coal accounts for over 70 percent of China's energy sources, if the extensive use of clean coal can be realized, it will improve efficiency by more than 30 percent.

At present, the successfully developed technology of liquefaction of coal has been widely used in chemical and metallurgical industries, power generation and in urban gas supply, this has greatly raised the utilization efficiency of coal.

In regard to the use of water, special attention should be paid to raising the utilization efficiency of agricultural-use water that accounts for 70 percent of the use volume of water resources. Besides energetically improving the efficiency of irrigation water, it is necessary to raise the utilization efficiency of agricultural-use water through such techniques or means as drip irrigation, spray irrigation and running water-saving wagons. The application of such technology has gained desirable results, if the utilization efficiency of China's agricultural-use water is raised by 10 percent, it would mean an increase in the volume of effective use of water equivalent to that of a Yellow River.

In regard to the use of electricity, the emphasis is on the use of semiconductor lighting and other high and new technologies. The breakthrough made in semiconductor lighting technology will help reduce the consumption of electricity for lighting purpose to one-10th of filament lamp. If semiconductor lighting were used for one-third of the country's lighting purpose, it would mean saving electric power equivalent to the output of electricity generated annually by the Three Gorges Power Plant.

With its environment friendly and renewable characteristics, renewable energy sources receive extensive attention from various countries around the world. In some European countries, the total volume of renewable energy resources has accounted for over 30 percent of the aggregate of energy resources, but the percentage in China is very low. However, the exploitable volume of renewable energy resources in China is very rich, and so has broad prospects.

In the development of renewable energy resources, we should focus on solving some key technological problems related to the utilization of wind power, solar energy and biomass energy to provide technical support for diversified energy supplies. We have successfully developed megawatt wind power generating set and raised the technical level of China's energy equipment manufacturing industry.

The low resources utilization efficiency is an outstanding problem facing China's economic and social development, to solve the problem we should focus on developing the cyclic resources utilization technology, developing a recycling economy is of important significance to building a resources-saving society. Great efforts should be made to develop energy-saving technology, equipment and other technologies in cyclic water use, the use of solid wastes as resources and in high-energy-consumption fields.

For example, the technology of using crop stalks to produce methane, husks of rice, bits of wood and straw and other discarded things to generate electric power has been used in some rural areas and has thus improved the rural ecological environment.

It is also very important to develop back-up energy technology and technology for resources substitutes, the state will mainly strengthen research on and development of thermal energy, nuclear energy and sea water compound to store up technical reserves, laying a foundation for long-term needs. The state will also develop resources substitute technology, such as using ceramic materials as substitutes for steel products.

In short, in building a resources-saving society, scientific and technological work not only plays its role in a certain link, but rather in the whole chain of the utilization of resources, efforts should be made to strive for the achievement of technical breakthroughs so as to provide support and guarantee for the building a resources-saving society.