China will cap annual energy consumption at 5 billion metric tons of coal equivalent by 2020, as Beijing pushes to control the use of resources and curb greenhouse-gas emissions. The cap, detailed Saturday in a draft of the government’s 13th Five Year Plan economic blueprint , comes as Chinese leaders seek to tackle wasteful resource usage and industrial overcapacity in the world’s second-largest economy. It marks the first time a hard energy-consumption cap has been enshrined in a five-year plan, underscoring the increasing importance Beijing places on the efficient use of resources. The government has previously given energy-consumption targets in other, less official, forms. In 2015, total energy consumption hit 4.3 billion metric tons of standard coal equivalent, up 0.9% from a year earlier. The new consumption cap will increase slightly each year, rising to a maximum of 5 billion metric tons by 2020. Limiting overall energy consumption is […]